Determining Irrigation Requirements of Extensive Crops Using the Typical Meteorological Year Adjusted to the Growing Cycle Period
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments to the Authors
The entitled manuscript of Determining Irrigation Requirements of Extensive Crops Using The Typical Meterlogical Year Adjusted to The Growing Cycle Period is an informative paper that provides a valuable approach to achieving the typical irrigation requirements of the main extensive crops in CLM of maize, onion, garlic, and barley to help farmers and water authorities achieve higher yields and more sustainable use of water resources. Below are my suggestions and comments for the authors to improve this manuscript:
The abstract is extremely long, the authors need to shorten it and concentrate on the main finding after briefly mentioning the methodology.
Also, generally, the paper needs to rewrite some paragraphs and re-structure the sentences.
The results and Dissection section lack discussion, the authors need to provide sufficient discussion for the results that they found.
Generally, the tables need further elaboration to make them more acceptable for publishing in a journal.
Specific comments:
Provide the scientific names for the Garlic; Barley; Onion; Maize, where ever mention first in the induction.
Line 44: where is Castilla-La Mancha located, I know it is in Spain but mention that clearly.
Figure 1: the legends are not clear and also there is no north arrow on the map, try to obtain a colored map with respect to the requirements.
Line 154 define: ETo, Tmin and Tmax
Table 2: do not capitalize the entire word
Author Response
The entitled manuscript of Determining Irrigation Requirements of Extensive Crops Using The Typical Meterlogical Year Adjusted to The Growing Cycle Period is an informative paper that provides a valuable approach to achieving the typical irrigation requirements of the main extensive crops in CLM of maize, onion, garlic, and barley to help farmers and water authorities achieve higher yields and more sustainable use of water resources. Below are my suggestions and comments for the authors to improve this manuscript.
Thanks to the suggestions made by the reviewer. Indeed, with the corrections made, we hope that the manuscript will improve for the readers.
Point 1.1: The abstract is extremely long, the authors need to shorten it and concentrate on the main finding after briefly mentioning the methodology.
Response: Corrected. We have summarized the abstract a little more. It has been reduced from 2608 to 2098 characters (20% lower).
Point 1.2: Also, generally, the paper needs to rewrite some paragraphs and re-structure the sentences.
Response: Ok, we have revised the full document and modified some unclear sentences. We have also included a new 2.1 section and more paragraphs following the suggestions of reviewer 2.
Point 1.3: The results and Dissection section lack discussion, the authors need to provide sufficient discussion for the results that they found.
Response: Ok, we have tried to improve the discussion of the results by including several new paragraphs: lines 369-375, 607-614.
Point 1.4: Generally, the tables need further elaboration to make them more acceptable for publishing in a journal.
Response: Ok, we have improved tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Specific comments:
Point 1.5: Provide the scientific names for the Garlic; Barley; Onion; Maize, where ever mention first in the induction.
Response: Ok, Introduced on lines 22-23
Point 1.6: Line 44: where is Castilla-La Mancha located, I know it is in Spain but mention that clearly.
Response: Ok, Referenced on line 52 and in figure 1
Point 1.7: Figure 1: the legends are not clear and also there is no north arrow on the map, try to obtain a colored map with respect to the requirements.
Response: Ok, figure 1 has been improved.
Point 1.8: Line 154 define: ETo, Tmin and Tmax
Response: Ok, in lines 182,184 these terms have been defined.
Point 1.9: Table 2: do not capitalize the entire word
Response: Ok, corrected
Reviewer 2 Report
Hi Authors,
Thanks for this work, but we still have some comments to make this work more valuable and easy to understand for the readers.
Introduction:
The introduction should be an extensive view of the problems such as climate change global or local and how that can affect crop growth and total crop yield. Also, you need to discuss water scarcity surface water (rivers or groundwater) in the agriculture sector and how irrigation methods can reduce the water shortage and impact crop growth and total crop yield. In addition, irrigation efficiency is related to choosing the right irrigation method to increase the total crop yield.
How innovative irrigation methods can help and how much water is applied to crops depending on the soil properties and weather conditions that impact directly on the total water applied in the area.
You need to rewrite the introduction depending above description.
also, you can use some references related to this study below.
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4328
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378377421007137?casa_token=G9I3De7LnCsAAAAA:gzorXjWkElqdwu3G7BEmtTgWlIasi1mRElim9OW2KNOGsgdfp6n0P4QoY0bTLiKhNVB-REq_-Q
2. Materials and Methods
You have to add a new section " Site Discrption"
you have maintained the irrigation system in this area.
"MOPECO" irrigation water economic optimization model. you have to maintain this model for which irrigation methods can work.
Did the model relate to climate change or any factors?
You did not explain which irrigation methods were used in the study and the total water applied under each method. Also, you have to explain the soil classification and root depth for each crop you mentioned because that relates to calculating how much water is applied per area.
Π in the eq. what is means? is 3.14 or different.
Line 247. how do you calculate the ETa = actual crop evapotranspiration (mm)? Did you use penman-monteith equation? if yes, you have to maintain it or any eq you used.
The results section:
you need more discussion related to climate change or any factor for all the sections.
Conclusion
How the growers can overcome the dry season or intermediate season? You did not recommend specific irrigation methods to save more water and avoid losing water during an irrigation event.
Best wishes
Author Response
Thanks for this work, but we still have some comments to make this work more valuable and easy to understand for the readers.
Thanks to the suggestions made by the reviewer. Indeed, with the corrections made, we hope that the manuscript will improve for the readers.
Introduction:
Point 2.1: The introduction should be an extensive view of the problems such as climate change global or local and how that can affect crop growth and total crop yield. Also, you need to discuss water scarcity surface water (rivers or groundwater) in the agriculture sector and how irrigation methods can reduce the water shortage and impact crop growth and total crop yield. In addition, irrigation efficiency is related to choosing the right irrigation method to increase the total crop yield. How innovative irrigation methods can help and how much water is applied to crops depending on the soil properties and weather conditions that impact directly on the total water applied in the area.
You need to rewrite the introduction depending above description.
Response: OK, we have included some comments about climate change (lines 49-51), overexploitation of aquifers (lines 71-72), importance of irrigation in CLM (lines 169-174).
Point 2.2: Also, you can use some references related to this study below.
Response: OK, we have included the [4], [5], [6], [18], [19], [20], [33], [43] and [44] new references.
Materials and Methods
Point 2.3: You have to add a new section " Site Description"
Response: A new section has been included: 2.1. Site description (Lines 161-174)
Point 2.4: you have maintained the irrigation system in this area.
Response: OK, the irrigation system considered in this study (solid set system) was the most used for the 4 selected crops in the area (line 256).
Point 2.5: "MOPECO" irrigation water economic optimization model. You have to maintain this model for which irrigation methods can work.
Response: As explained in lines 247-258 MOPECO uses net water to determine the soil water balance and the irrigation scheduling. Gross irrigation water is used for determining the real amount of water used by the farmer and calculate the total water cost, which depends on the irrigation system through the evaporation and drift losses. A clarification has been included (line 256).
Point 2.6: Did the model relate to climate change or any factors?
Response: Please, see responses to question 2.10.
Point 2.7: You did not explain which irrigation methods were used in the study and the total water applied under each method. Also, you have to explain the soil classification and root depth for each crop you mentioned because that relates to calculating how much water is applied per area.
Response: In lines 310-315 are described the parameters considered for the simulations. Thus, the irrigation method used was “solid set system” (line 256).
Point 2.8: Π in the eq. what is means? is 3.14 or different.
Response: As well as the symbol ∑ indicates summation and is used as a shorthand notation for the sum of terms that follow a pattern, π indicates multiplication.
Point 2.9: Line 247. how do you calculate the ETa = actual crop evapotranspiration (mm)? Did you use penman-monteith equation? if yes, you have to maintain it or any eq you used.
Response: OK, this is explained in lines 281-287.
“Daily ETm is calculated by multiplying the daily crop coefficient (Kc) by the daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) [Allen et al, 1998]. ETo was calculated by using the equation pro-posed by [Hargreaves and Samani,1985)] due to not enough climatic data are available in the area before year 2000 for using Penman-Monteith FAO equation [Allen et al, 1998]. Daily ETa requires a daily soil water content balance based on FAO-56 [Allen et al, 1998], which is calculated as the difference between inputs (precipitation and irrigation, capillary ascent not being considered in this case) and out-puts (ETa and deep percolation) [Dominguez et al, 2011].”
The results section:
Point 2.10: you need more discussion related to climate change or any factor for all the sections.
Response: OK, We have included this as a new paragraph in lines 369-375
Conclusion
Point 2.11: How the growers can overcome the dry season or intermediate season? You did not recommend specific irrigation methods to save more water and avoid losing water during an irrigation event.
Response: The reviewer is right, we have not included irrigation water management recommendations for saving water due to that is not the objective of this paper. Anyway, we have included the reference to two recently published papers [43], [44] for increasing the efficiency of irrigation water in water scarce areas as CLM (lines 605-613).
