Influence of Topography on Sustainable Land Management: An Analysis of Socioeconomic and Ecodemographic Conditions of Nepal

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Referee Report on “Influence of Topography on Sustainable Land Management: An Analysis of Socioeconomic and Ecodemographic Conditions of Nepal”_agriculture_819567

The goals of this research are to: (a) explore if Nepal can self-sustaining in agricultural lands including the ones that have turned fallow recently, and if not even by utilizing land below the slope of 15 degree in various geographic regions; (b) productively engaging the returnee youths within the country, and (c) reinvigorating the ecosystem services of Nepal to support sustainable development. The issue is important and the results are interesting. However, I have the following specific concerns.

Major Concerns and Comments:

1. The abstract of this article is too long, suggesting that the author should simplify it. Only need to explain the research object, method and main findings.
2. The author mentions that the agricultural output value has decline, due to the Nepali has gone abroad to work overseas. Due to the decrease in global economic growth causes by COVID-19, Nepali will lose 28% of the country’s GDP through remittances as youth working in 59 countries may lose their jobs. So they can use agricultural development to solve the unemployment problem. However, the author should clearly explain which problems to be solved by this research. Does it emphasize an agricultural issue? Or does it focus on an employment issue? Therefore, the author should propose different planning solutions to solve the dilemma of Nepal.
3. The author mentions that Nepal imports millions of dollars of food grains and fruits, for examples, it imported $150 million of rice, $60 million of apple, $20 million of banana, $40 million of other fruits, and $130 million of onion and potato. Is the reason for the import due to the inability to produce non-indigenous food in the country, or is the production cost of indigenous food too high? Once agricultural production is restarted, can it replace imported products or expand exports? The author should think about the reasons before he can have the correct countermeasures. If the imported temperate fruits are to be replaced, then it is the cultivation of alpine temperate fruits to be evaluated and planned. If the imported rice is to be replaced, then the evaluation and planning is the cultivation of rice on flat and sloped land. At this time, there will be a large difference in the agricultural products planned for re-cultivation.
4. Although 30% of the world's population is located in the periphery of Nepal, it is also an important agricultural production area. If Nepal fully resumes farming, will it be possible to successfully export agricultural products? Whether it will cause an imbalance in the production and marketing of domestic agricultural products, which in turn affects farmers' income, is a topic worthy of consideration.
5. An important tool for this study is satellite imageries. At the same time, the author proposed changes in 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s to explore land use and cover classes, so that readers can understand the changes in cultivated land during the study. In addition, use satellite technology to observe the slope of its land, and then judge its slope. However, agricultural production should comprehensively consider factors such as slope, soil, rainfall, altitude, and microclimate to determine its cultivation suitability. It is recommended that authors can select several representative agricultural products that are feasible for planting, such as food crops and economic crops, and discuss the impact on food security of the required cultivated land and planting plans.
6. In the climate change in Nepal, the temperature has been rising for a long time, and how it affects its agricultural development, the author did not explain, and formulate countermeasures.
7. The land analysis of each province is relatively unimportant; the focus is on the overall national agricultural production and employment planning. It is recommended that the authors simplify appropriately. The focus should be on detailed analysis and description of the overall land and planting plan. At the same time, the author should explain the resources (equipment, technology and variety) required for the implementation of this project and the policy recommendations required to provide skills to Nepali to improve the sustainable development of Nepalese agriculture.

Minor Concerns:

1. English spelling and grammar need to be checked. For example, on line 26, "classificaiotn" should be "classfication". On line 156, “about six and eight million” should be “about six to eight million”.

Evaluation:

For the above reasons, I believe that the current situation in this article is not suitable for publication in this journal. I encourage authors to make submissions after making appropriate corrections.

Author Response

Thank you for your kind review. The reviewer suggestions were very useful. We have fully revised reviewer concerned and resubmitted. The paper has been greatly improved with reviewer's constructive suggestions. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

The research contained in the article is very interesting and has been logically described.

The only thing I'm missing is how do you propose to reach a solution which is presented in the article.

Are these changes affected by a change in law or can the state really increase the agricultural land?

Have the authors thought about continuing this research in the direction of how can one achieve more agricultural land in Nepal?

Technical Notes:

• In verses 68 and 116, citations are incorrectly done
• Drawings are illegible, most Figure 2,3,19
• In the verse with information that no one in Nepal has died, please add the date
• In verses 368 and 369, please change the citations, add the names of the authors you refer to
• Figures 11-18. Should it not be arranged from 1980 to 2010?
• The same information is reproduced in several places in the text. Please limit it.

Author Response

Thank you for your kind review. The reviewer suggestions were very useful. We have fully revised reviewer concerned and resubmitted. The paper has been greatly improved with reviewer's constructive suggestions. 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Referee Report on “Influence of Topography on Sustainable Land Management: An Analysis of Socioeconomic and Ecodemographic Conditions of Nepal”_agriculture_819567_V2

The goals of this research are to: (a) explore if Nepal can self-sustaining in agricultural lands including the ones that have turned fallow recently, and if not even by utilizing land below the slope of 15 degree in various geographic regions; (b) productively engaging the returnee youths within the country, and (c) reinvigorating the ecosystem services of Nepal to support sustainable development. The authors make some amendments to the recommendations of the first review, and the reviewer here expresses his affirmation and gratitude. However, I have the following specific concerns.

Major Concerns and Comments:

1. The author should review whether the article answers the question on the title of this paper in order to highlight the contribution of this research. The author uses satellite images to estimate the change in cultivated land in Nepal, and believes that the return of Nepalese youth as a labor supply can not only create employment, but also be used as an economic compensation scheme for overseas remittance losses. However, the conclusion of this study only provides that Nepalese cultivated land is sufficient to supply Nepalese people's food consumption, and it does not provide additional evaluation and analysis. I suggest that the author should make the following amendments: First, explain the current status of agricultural production in Nepal, including cultivated area, agricultural production status, import and export of agricultural products, labor input, etc. Second, through satellite analysis, how much cultivated land is not fully used for agricultural production? How much potential arable land does the country have? Does topography affect the sustainability of land management? Third, how much does it cost to convert potentially arable land into arable land? How many people can be cultivated if underutilized cultivated land plus potential arable land is used? What are the feasible planting items for newly added cultivated land? How much output value can be increased by new cultivation? What are the supporting policies required for agricultural production? Are the relevant policies feasible under the current socio-economic and geographical conditions?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Kindly find our revised manuscript in both Word Document and a pdf format. We have also submitted responses to the reviewer.

Thank you for the remarks and questions. These remarks and questions have helped us to improve our manuscript.

We have revised the manuscript to respond to the entire concern raised by the reviewer. We have inserted the changes in the concluding section of the main manuscript in Blue color.  We have separated all the questions listed in a paragraph by the reviewer. We have separated them individually to provide specific responses to specific questions. We have submitted our responses in Blue color and all questions of the reviewer are marked in red.

Thank you for the intuitive and policy-related questions. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf