Unearthing Agricultural Land Use Dynamics in Indonesia: Between Food Security and Policy Interventions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper needs to be modified to meet the requirements of publication. The specific modification suggestions are as follows.

Abstract：

Line 20： “this pressure 19is represented through temporary land conversion from rice fields to agricultural land”. Aren't rice fields agricultural land?

 

1. Introduction

Further highlight the innovation of this paper.

 

3. Development of a dynamic system model with region-based closed feedback

Line189/195: “dynamic system model”, “system dynamics”, Are they the same thing? If so, academic affiliation should remain unified.

 

Line192-194: This sentence is so long and complicated that it can be expressed in a few short sentences. There are many land use simulation models, such as cellular automata, Markov chain, neural networks and so on. Why the system dynamics model is chosen and what the advantages are need to be further explained.

 

Whether land use, social economy and other relevant data were used in this study? If so, please add the data and its source

 

4. Analysis and Discussion

The readability of all the graphs needs to be improved. The chart needs further specification. For example, Figure 8 needs to be supplemented with the vertical axis title, units, and so on.

 

5. Conclusion

The conclusions should be further condensed to capture the main message.

Supplementary discussion section

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate editing of English language required.

Author Response

Comment 1: Abstract：Line 20： “this pressure 19is represented through temporary land conversion from rice fields to agricultural land”. Aren't rice fields agricultural land?

Response 1:

What we mean in this section is that land changes from rice fields to agricultural land in other commodities before finally becoming built land. Thank you for the input and we've fixed it to: (line 18-20)

“In other regions, this pressure manifests as the transformation of transitory land from rice to other agricultural commodities areas, subsequently to built-up land.”

In addition, improvements were also made to the abstract as a whole (line 9-22)

 

Comment 2:  Introduction: Further highlight the innovation of this paper.

Response 2: The introduction section has been revised. The innovation is reflected in paragraph 4 of the introduction

 

Comment 3: 3. Development of a dynamic system model with region-based closed feedback Line189/195: “dynamic system model”, “system dynamics”, Are they the same thing? If so, academic affiliation should remain unified.

Response 3: 

The use of terminology in the manuscript has been adjusted to "system dynamics". This refers to Forrester's conception of system dynamics in the following literature.

Forrester, Jay W. "The beginning of system dynamics." McKinsey Quarterly (1995): 4-17.

The term dynamic system in the previous draft was a forgetful edit. 

 

Comment 4:  Line192-194: This sentence is so long and complicated that it can be expressed in a few short sentences. There are many land use simulation models, such as cellular automata, Markov chain, neural networks and so on. Why the system dynamics model is chosen and what the advantages are need to be further explained.

Response 4: This part has been revised and reflected in the first paragraph of part 3 (methodology) by emphasizing the basis for selecting system dynamics as a simulation method in this study. 

 

Comment 5:  Whether land use, social economy and other relevant data were used in this study? If so, please add the data and its source

Response 5:  The methodology section (part 3) has been revised. In addition, data collection has also been added to paragraph 4 of this section, where the data collected is secondary data (from government agencies) (a detailed list of data needs is shown in Appendix A) as well as interviews with the Ministry of Industry and Local Governments to determine how large the target policy scenario will be modeled.

 

Comment 6: Analysis and Discussion. The readability of all the graphs needs to be improved. The chart needs further specification. For example, Figure 8 needs to be supplemented with the vertical axis title, units, and so on

Response 6:  Figure 8 has been corrected by adding its axis title and data unit. In addition, Figure 10-12 is changed to a table to provide clearer information about the extent to which the scenario has implications compared to the baseline situation. 

 

Comment 7: Conclusion. The conclusions should be further condensed to capture the main message. Supplementary discussion section

Response 7: The conclusion section has been condensed and focuses on answering how the dynamics of land cover change without and with policy intervention

 

Comment 8: Moderate editing of English language required

Response 8: Editing has been done

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper is interesting. Even I am not sure that this could be applied for the crops considered and the local context, often it has been highlighted that an agro-forestry and non intensive agriculture, in which both agricultural and residential areas can cohabite could be a very good approach. A suggestion could be to analyse also this kind of opportunity.

Author Response

Comment 1: The paper is interesting. Even I am not sure that this could be applied for the crops considered and the local context, often it has been highlighted that an agro-forestry and non intensive agriculture, in which both agricultural and residential areas can cohabite could be a very good approach. A suggestion could be to analyse also this kind of opportunity.

Response 1:  Thank you for the feedback. At the micro level in the field, the context of multiple land cover uses, such as agriculture and settlements, can occur. Still, unfortunately, this cannot be captured by the macro satellite images in Indonesia used to calculate this model.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article uses information about small farmers and shows the dynamics of many activities around rice production. The title could include "rice, cassava, palm oil or corn" according to specific information presented.

Figure 1-12 , the size is too small. Please put a higher font.

Figure 2. The graph is not clear. Change or give the illustration to highlight what you want to show.

The methodology is not expressed in any specific section. However, you present results and discussion. How do you obtain those data? Could you show the methodological process and their steps, instruments, and analysis the objective is not clear, in section 2, and as the conclusion is presented the study aims.

Which model are you explaining in the article? Table 1 is not clear and it is neccesary to show the model to produce the results.

 

Results are relevant but must be organized.

Conclusions

Comments on the Quality of English Language

N/A

Author Response

Comment 1: The article uses information about small farmers and shows the dynamics of many activities around rice production. The title could include "rice, cassava, palm oil or corn" according to specific information presented.

Response 1: 

This study does not use information that specifically reflects the issue of small-holder farmers considering that there is no secondary data produced by the Central Statistics Agency that is able to describe it. The issue of small-holder farmers (especially related to palm oil) is obtained from literature that shows the dynamics between large companies vs local small-holder farmers in controlling oil palm land.

The title does not use the names of specific agricultural commodities (rice, cassava, corn, and palm oil), considering these commodities only partially represent agricultural land and plantations. The main issue to be developed is land cover change through several aspatial scenarios involving several commodities. 

 

Comment 2: Figure 1-12 , the size is too small. Please put a higher font.

Response 2: Figures 1-12 have been corrected, and the axes and data units have been added. In addition, Figures 10-12 are changed to tables to provide clearer information about the extent to which the scenario has implications compared to the baseline situation.

 

Comment 3:  Figure 2. The graph is not clear. Change or give the illustration to highlight what you want to show.

Response 3: Figures 2-6 have been corrected, and all symbols have been translated into English. The images show the structure of the model developed in Powersim (analysis software)

 

Comment 4:  The methodology is not expressed in any specific section. However, you present results and discussion. How do you obtain those data? Could you show the methodological process and their steps, instruments, and analysis the objective is not clear, in section 2, and as the conclusion is presented the study aims.

Response 4:  The methodology section (part 3) has been revised. In addition, data collection has also been added to paragraph 4 of this section, where the data collected is secondary data (from government agencies) and interviews with the Ministry of Industry and Local Governments to determine how large the target policy scenario will be modeled.

The next stage involves preparing the model structure in Powersim to describe the dynamics of problems in each sector, as reflected in Figures 3-7. This is then followed by model simulations in the baseline scenario (without policy) and policy scenario (moderate and optimistic).

 

Comment 5: Which model are you explaining in the article? Table 1 is not clear and it is neccesary to show the model to produce the results.

Response 5:  The author has added the analysis stage to paragraph 5 (part 3) and subheadings 3.1 – 3.3 to provide a clearer flow.

The model described in this paper is a system dynamic, which in this study is developed into five structures: one to explain land dynamics and four others to show the dynamics of commodities. In addition, the model is simulated gradually, namely business as usual and non-business as usual. Table 1 describes the targets of the non-business-as-usual simulation to produce results. 

 

Comment 6:  Results are relevant but must be organized.

Response 6: The results have been organized into several sub-headings that focus on elaborating production, then continue with land cover exploration

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors.

After revision the paper land-3155152 I found out I am not qualified to revise the content but I can give some technical suggestions:

- Write the limitation of the study in conclusion section

- Improve the abstract of the paper according to abstract well known structure

- Reconstruction the sub-titles and content of the paper that it will be more suitable for reading the paper fluently

Kind regards and I wish you a sucessful revision.

Author Response

Comment 1: Write the limitation of the study in conclusion section

Response 1: The limitations of this study have been outlined in paragraph 3 of the conclusions (latest draft).

 

Comment 2: Improve the abstract of the paper according to abstract well known structure

Response 2: The abstract has been revised to provide background information, research objectives, methods and scope of analysis, and concludes with a summary of the research findings.

 

Comment 3: Reconstruction the sub-titles and content of the paper that it will be more suitable for reading the paper fluently

Response 3: This paper has been restructured in sections 3 (methods) and 4 (analysis) by adding several subheadings.