The Efficacy of Micronutrient Fertilizers on the Yield Formulation and Quality of Wheat Grains

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please, include in the title that your article is review.  

Introduction is extended; according to my opinion, it should be more compact and focused on micronutrient deficiencies for wheat crop. 

Afterwards, in the Table 2 there is enough information for the role of micronutrients on plant metabolism; however, in many cases there are examples for other plant species, like cauliflower, cabbage, legumes e.t.c. The topic of the article is about the efficacy of micronutrients... on wheat grains. So, why do you need to include so much information for the effects of micronutrients on other plant species? 

Very extended and general information exists in future challenges and conclusions. Here, we need the most important information, summarizing the main aspects of your article, we do not need extended, very general information. Usually this kind of information is summarized in one paragraph: i.e. Conclusions and future perspectives; I think you should reconstruct these two paragraphs, by submerging them into a new one and by deleting approximately 60-70% of the text contained in these two paragraphs. 

Recommendation: Interesting review article about the role of micronutrients on yields and grain quality in wheat crop; however, it needs major revision before promoted for publication.    

Author Response

1. We have compacted the introduction and made it more specific to micronutrient deficiencies for wheat crop. 
2. We have deleted examples of non-wheat crops and augmented information about wheat.
3. We completely reconstructed the parts Future Challenges and Research Directions and Conclusion as per Reviewer’s recommendation.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The review manuscript is presented well except for few MINOR REVISIONS presented below:

(1) Line No. 29: Kindly check the statement, as maize is the largest produced crop than wheat.

(2) Line No. 32 and 33: Present the years for references

(3) Line No. 118: Correct as 'Ziaeian & Malakouti (2001)'..

(4) Line No. 126: Correct as 'seed treatment' in row number 6

(5) Line No. 127-137: Remove italics of the text, except for references

(6) Line No. 205: Whether prior permission was obtained to reproduce the images from the source. Should follow the policy of the journal as well..

(7) Line No. 226: Correct as 'Malakouti (2008)'..

(8) Line No. 248: Figure number not given and no related figures has been presented

(9) Line No. 265: Present the deficiency symptoms as bullet points for easy reading. Continuous text is anyhow presented in the main text.

(10) Present examples where agronomic biofortification of micronutrients have been reported.

Author Response

1. Line No. 2 and Line No. 32 and 33. We have changed the parts of the introduction concerning the statistics.
2. Line No. 118 and Line No. 226: We corrected the in-text reference as suggested by the Reviewer.
3. Line No. 126: We corrected the statement to seed treatment, hence correcting it.
4. Line No. 127-137: We removed the italics.
5. Line No. 205: We acknowledged the source of the material.
6. Line No. 248: Figure number was added as suggested by the Reviewer.
7. Line No. 265: We have added bullet points to the table for ease of reading.
8. We added a paragraph on agronomic biofortification of micronutrient

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

·         The sentence says that the addition of micronutrients is always important to increase the yield and quality of wheat grain. This is not always true. The use of micronutrients can have a negative impact on yield, quality and toxicity. Micronutrient utilization efficiency depends on soil properties, their amount and plant type. So that must be clarified.

·         Explain in a more precise way increasing the efficiency of micronutrient fertilizers by using nanomaterials

·         In light of climate changes, micronutrient fertilizers affect wheat yield and quality, so this should be clarified

·         Research lacks knowledge about accurate fertilizer application times in wheat field

·         The interaction between micronutrients and plant has not been demonstrated

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

1. We have added a treatise on the possible negative impacts of micronutrients on the wheat crop as well as their efficiency as affected by factors such as soil properties, plant type etc.
2. The aspect of micronutrient effects on yield and quality in relation to climate change has also been explored.
3. The dynamics of the interaction between the plant and micronutrients have been unraveled.
4. The enhancement of micronutrient supply through the use of nanofertilizers has been discussed.
5. Information on aspects related to fertilizer application times is provided in the article.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have sufficiently answerd to my previous remarks. I recommend this review article (please, indicate in the title that this is a review article) for publication. 

Reviewer 3 Report

Your paper is well edited and can therefore be published in this condition