Farmers’ Knowledge on Whitefly Populousness among Tomato Insect Pests and Their Management Options in Tomato in Tanzania

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is an interesting paper on the awareness of farmers in Tanzania regarding the importance of whiteflies in tomato crops. The report is well written, and the object is rather basic but nevertheless, critical in the control of the pest that is dealt with.

There are a few major items that should be discussed:

1) one of the principal problems caused by whiteflies such as Bemisia tabaci, is due to their transmission of plant viruses. Surprisingly, viruses are hardly mentioned in the manuscript.  In fact, TYLCV, one of the main viruses in tomatoes, is also important In Tanzania (e.g. Journal of Plant Protection Research. 2007;47(4):367-373.), and has been the object of studies on control strategies (e.g. https://doi.org/10.1300/J064v22n02_03). When dealing with the knowledge of farmers, one of the key issues is to see whether farmers associate the presentation of certain symptoms or diseases, with whiteflies.  This has not been addressed, which is a lost occasion. But at least the authors should expand the relationship of B. tabaci-transmitted viruses in the tomato crops from Tanzania, or the region of study.

2) From the paper, the reader may conclude the relationship between having knowledge of B. tabaci whiteflies, and extension services. So the reader may want to have data on where does the extension in Tanzania come from? private or public services, or both? What can be done to improve that?

3) Also, the reader may want to know how the study represents the sector. How many farmers are there in the regions concerned? What percentage of the existing farmers have participated? At least an approximate figure would be of interest.

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your comments and suggestions. Please find attached our response to each comment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This study is aimed to assess farmer's knowledge on whitefly density among tomato insect pests and farmers' options on the pest management in Tanzania. The study design is acceptable and the study contains some valuable information. However, the study suffers from several problems that have to be fixed before the possible consideration for publication.

Comments/Suggestions

Title: The title does not fully cover the ms content and too complicated. Please revise it. Do not put a point at the end of the title.

Abstract: This section should be in one paragraph (not three). The conclusion sentence (L29-34) is too long and complicated. The overall word numbers of abstract should be reduced.

Introduction is too short, you should give a more convincing background of your aims.

L35: What do you mean in 'Infestation popularity'? This should be deleted from the title too.

L39: Here you should give the latin name of whitefly (not in the title).

L40: Citatation format is not follow the journal requirement. This should be changed thoroughout the text.

L67-70: 'The outcome of the study ...' is result or conclusion.

L70: Give precise objectives (something like in the abstract).

L74: Bemisia tabaci - should be in italic (thorughout the text)

L99: You should give your questionare form with all questions as a supplementary file. The title of Table 1 is not informative enough (missing that a questionare about what, where and why)

L100: If you give a map then you should give Figure x and this Figure should be cited in the text.

L113-129: The text simply repeating the data of table 2. I miss statistical analyses of the data. 

L130: Title of table 2 is not informative enough.

L160: Title of table 3 is not informative enough. I miss statistical analyses of the data. 

L191: Title of table 4 is not informative enough. I miss statistical analyses of the data. 

L198: You should use SI standard (hectare and not acre).

L212: Discussion is too long comparing to the gained results. You should focus more on the comparison of the previous studies.

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your comments and suggestions. Please find attached our response to each comment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx