Transition of Agricultural Mechanization, Agricultural Economy, Government Policy and Environmental Movement Related to Rice Production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam after 2010

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please, see the comments in your article English style should be improved. 

Better structering, and including of more references!

In material and methods is missing any explanations regarding statically analyses used.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

8th November 2020

To the 1st Reviewer of AgriEngineering

Dear Reviewer,

Please find enclosed our revised manuscript entitled “Recent trends in agricultural machinery, the agricultural economy, government policy, and environmental movements related to rice production in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam,” with Manuscript ID agriengineering-963412, which was modified from the original manuscript based on your instruction.

Followings are revised points and some explanations;

1. Research background and relevant references: references and figures added for better understanding.
2. Statically analyses: more practical data in sentences were added.
3. Your marked “borrow” : Vietnam is a socialist republic country, then all the land belongs to the country and no private land ownership is available. We cannot say “own the land”, every private farm, urban housing, or company have or buy a right to use land with limited years such as 70 years, 50 years “borrow”. However, Vietnam established in1975 (45 years of post war), and there is no land lend revision case was happened. We add some explanations in the manuscript.
4. Line 48, increase rice quality:
   changed to, improved rice quality
5. Line 55-56, agricultural mechanization and the situation of rice-cropping farmer household in Vietnam:
   added reference paper [9] (Kompas, T et al.) The Effects of Rice Export Policy on Regional Income, Prices and the Poor: A ‘Bottom-up’ Regional CGE model for Vietnam.
6. Line 63-65, we investigated the changing conditions of agricultural mechanization according to the current level of modernization of the Mekong Delta. :
   changed to, we investigated the changing demand of agricultural mechanization according to the current mechanization level, farmers’ requirements, or farming environment in the Mekong Delta.
7. Line 66-67, In order to fulfill this research objective, we carried out the following work :
   changed to, In order to understand current situation and find out future possibilities practically, we carried out the following work
8. Line 101, There are several research papers related to Vietnamese agriculture:
   added reference five papers by IDE-Jetro [5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13]
9. Line 110, large farm owners:
   changed to, registered large farm named “Tran Trai” owners
10. Line 155-204, twenty-five (15) questionnaires listed:
    added questionnaires background at ahead of each group,
    Tractors for land preparation is common, however, majority of farmers asking land preparation services from service providers. We checked those convenience levels with following 1), 2), 3).
    1) Location of farm machine services provided for land preparation by rice cropping pattern:
    2) Waiting time for business providing farm machine services for land preparation
    3) Rate of questionnaire respondents who wanted to purchase a tractor for land preparation
    In our surveyed six provinces, rice seed sowing method, such as manual direct seeding “broadcasting”, manual row sowing by drum seeder, and manual transplanting, is different in each area based on climate, water supply, soil, season or other conditions. We checked sowing methods in each province and cropping pattern separately with following 4), 5), 6).
    4) Current status of rice sowing in the Autumn-Winter season by method
    5) Current status of rice sowing in the Winter-Spring season by method
    6) Current status of rice sowing in the Summer-Autumn season by method
    Among rice seed sowing method, manual direct seeding “broadcasting” method was the majority, however, trend of better quality and productivity, main stream of sowing method was changed to manual row sowing by drum seeder, and partly sifted to use transplanter, then we checked the latest situation with following 7), 8), 9), 10), 11), 12).   
    7) How farm machine services for row sowing were procured by rice cropping pattern (2 crops or 3 crops)
    8) Rate of respondents wanted to shift from manual direct seeding (broadcasting) to row sowing or machine transplanting
    9) Reason for shifting from broadcasting to row sowing
    10) Rate of respondents who wanted to shift from row sowing to machine transplanting
    11) Reason for shifting from row sowing to machine transplanting
    12) Rate of respondents who wanted to purchase a transplanting machine
    Rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta much relies on fertilizer and chemicals much, because of 2 crops or 3 crops cultivation is majority and big volume of fertilizers are required to keep fertility of soil. Also weeding agrochemicals are required because of difficulty of mechanical or manual weed control in broadcasted (manual direct seeding) paddy, rice and weed grow in mixed. Then, we checked the related situation with following 13), 14), 15), 16).     
    13) Current status of fertilizer application
    14) Rate of respondents who wanted to shift from manual fertilizing to mechanized fertilizer application
    15) Current status of chemical spraying
    16) Rate of respondents who wanted to shift to mechanized spraying application
    Rice harvesting is one of the main works in rice production. After 2009, rice combine harvester became very popular machine in the Mekong Delta. Rice is harvested by combine harvester in  most of area, however, most of farmers use harvesting services done by service providers. We checked the latest machine service situation with following 17), 18), 19), 20), 21), 22).
    17) Current status of rice harvesting by cropping pattern and season
    18) Origin of business providing farm machine services for harvesting by rice cropping patterns
    19) Waiting time for companies providing combine harvester services for harvesting
    20) Method for obtaining a combine harvester for harvesting
    21) Rate of respondents who demanded a shorter waiting time for harvesting
    22) Rate of respondents wanted to purchase a combine harvester
    We wanted to know over all mechanization demand or difficulties in each working processes and cropping patterns, and checked those with following 23), 24), 25).
    23) Difficulty of implementing mechanization in rice production according to each stage (difficulty level)
    24) Priority of mechanization in each stage of rice production
    25) Willingness to purchase agricultural machinery by cropping pattern
11. Line 206-223, Second study questionnaires:
    Added background ahead of questionnaires, Farming service by machine is necessary function of rice production in the Mekong Delta, because each farming scale is rather small and average farmer households cannot own machines by themselves. We interviewed 75 business providers for farm machinery services in six provinces in 2013. Table 2 shows the location of businesses which supply four-wheel drive (4W) tractors, two-wheel drive (2W) tractors, or combine harvesters. The survey was designed to increase understanding of the operation and economic situation of machinery suppliers.
12. Line 274, Agricultural land policy has also been employed to support rice production. Indeed, on 9 Apr. 2016:
    Changed to, Agricultural land policy has also been encouraged farmers to support rice production. On 9 Apr. 2016
13. Line 280-284, In short, farmland for rice cropping per household has increased slightly every year. However, the population of farm labor force has decreased, leading to an increased demand for mechanization. However, a certain number of farmers prefer to remain in rural areas to conduct agricultural work because of affordability of farm life:
    Changed to, In short, farmland for rice cropping per household has increased slightly every year. However, the population of farm labor force has decreased, which accelerates demand for mechanization. However, in a long term, farmers were recommended to change their cropping item from rice to other profitable agricultural products partly, which will also keep a certain number of farmers to remain in rural areas to conduct agricultural work because of affordability of farm life
14. Line 332, “broadcasting”:
    Keep unchanged, because “broadcasting” is usually used as TV or Radio word, but in rice production researches such as IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) or other researchers in rice production countries commonly use this word as meaning of “manual direct seeding”, then we also follow this manner.
15. Line 342-343, shift from row sowing to machine transplanting:
    changed to, shift from row sowing of rice seed to machine transplanting
16. Line 426-433, In addition, the large farm registration system (Trang Trai) was introduced in 2000. As a result of several revision to the system, a farmer can now borrow up to 30ha/household of land for rice cultivation for 50years. As a consequence of the industrialization of Vietnam, many rural inhabitants have migrated to the cities, resulting in a decreased in the rural labor force and an increased need for agricultural mechanization:
    changed to, In addition, the large farm registration system “Trang Trai” was introduced in 2000. We understand it was a special solution of Vietnam government, because Vietnam land law keeps a land borrowing limitation of 3ha/household, but “Tran Trai” system allowed over 3ha land lend as a business farm registration. As a result of several revision to the system, a farmer can now borrow up to 30ha/household of land for rice cultivation for 50years. As a consequence of the industrialization of Vietnam, many rural inhabitants have migrated to the cities, resulting in a decreased in the rural labor force and an increased need for agricultural mechanization.
17. Line 447-449, In order to develop rice production, we must also consider the overall balance of all related factors, such as productivity, profitability, quality, environmental load, and workforce balance
    Changed to, In order to develop rice production industry in the Mekong Delta, we had better to consider the overall balance of all related factors, such as productivity, profitability, quality, environmental load, and workforce balance 

We hope you will understand our revision contents and our manuscript will be handled to the next step in AgriEngineering.

This study examines the trend of rice cultivation methods used in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, which is also linked with the Vietnam government policy of urban and rural development. I have established our Agricultural Research Institute in Vietnam inside  Can Tho University in early 2013, and started our studies targeting improvement of Vietnamese agriculture. This research was our first deep survey in the Mekong Delta done in 2013-2014.

Our research first outlines the level of mechanization in each of the four major processes of rice cultivation. We subsequently carry out interviews with farmer households, farm machinery service providers, and owners of large farms. Our results show that the sowing process is the least mechanized process among the four major processes of rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta. Therefore, our study suggests that the further mechanization of sowing processes be pursued in order to advance the development of sustainable agriculture in Vietnam. We think this study is useful because it outlines factors which both enable and inhibit the adoption of further mechanization, while also identifying major trends in the field of rice cultivation in Vietnam. Moreover, this data can contribute to the crafting of policies and initiatives to upgrade productivity and rice quality of Vietnam through suitable mechanization or other improvements.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership. The manuscript has been carefully reviewed by an experienced editor whose first language is English and who specializes in editing papers written by scientists whose native language is not English.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Takeo Matsubara

Yanmar Global Expert Co., Ltd.

1-32, Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013, Japan

Phone No: +81-90-98657630

Email Address: [email protected]      or 

             [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The quality of the article submission is poor, more like a draft, but not a serious scientific article. The text is presented in different colors, it is not clear why.

1. The introduction does not highlight the scientific problem and its relevance. There are no references to literature sources in the introduction.
2. The methodology is highly fragmented, described in detail, but not all results of the described data are presented in the results section.
3. In row 84 is written "The General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) issues statistical report every year" therefore it is not clear why are provided very old data?  It is generally not clear in which year the surveys were conducted.
4. The discussion is very weak, usually based only on one or another statistical fact.
5. The conclusions are not concrete, based on little research data.
6. Very small list of literature source.
7. Other comments are made in the manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

8th November 2020

To the 2nd Reviewer of AgriEngineering

Dear Reviewer,

Please find enclosed our revised manuscript entitled “Recent trends in agricultural machinery, the agricultural economy, government policy, and environmental movements related to rice production in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam,” with Manuscript ID agriengineering-963412, which was modified from the original manuscript based on your instruction.

Followings are revised points and some explanations;

1. Highlighting the scientific problem and reference literature:
   references and figures added for better understanding.
2. The methodology is fragmented, and not linked to the results section:
   added each background of questionnaires at Interview section for better understanding, details are as below:
   Line 155-204, twenty-five (15) questionnaires listed:
   added questionnaires background at ahead of each group,
   Tractors for land preparation is common, however, majority of farmers asking land preparation services from service providers. We checked those convenience levels with following 1), 2), 3).
   1) Location of farm machine services provided for land preparation by rice cropping pattern:
   2) Waiting time for business providing farm machine services for land preparation
   3) Rate of questionnaire respondents who wanted to purchase a tractor for land preparation
   In our surveyed six provinces, rice seed sowing method, such as manual direct seeding “broadcasting”, manual row sowing by drum seeder, and manual transplanting, is different in each area based on climate, water supply, soil, season or other conditions. We checked sowing methods in each province and cropping pattern separately with following 4), 5), 6).
   4) Current status of rice sowing in the Autumn-Winter season by method
   5) Current status of rice sowing in the Winter-Spring season by method
   6) Current status of rice sowing in the Summer-Autumn season by method
   Among rice seed sowing method, manual direct seeding “broadcasting” method was the majority, however, trend of better quality and productivity, main stream of sowing method was changed to manual row sowing by drum seeder, and partly sifted to use transplanter, then we checked the latest situation with following 7), 8), 9), 10), 11), 12).  
   7) How farm machine services for row sowing were procured by rice cropping pattern (2 crops or 3 crops)
   8) Rate of respondents wanted to shift from manual direct seeding (broadcasting) to row sowing or machine transplanting
   9) Reason for shifting from broadcasting to row sowing
   10) Rate of respondents who wanted to shift from row sowing to machine transplanting
   11) Reason for shifting from row sowing to machine transplanting
   12) Rate of respondents who wanted to purchase a transplanting machine
   Rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta much relies on fertilizer and chemicals much, because of 2 crops or 3 crops cultivation is majority and big volume of fertilizers are required to keep fertility of soil. Also weeding agrochemicals are required because of difficulty of mechanical or manual weed control in broadcasted (manual direct seeding) paddy, rice and weed grow in mixed. Then, we checked the related situation with following 13), 14), 15), 16).     
   13) Current status of fertilizer application
   14) Rate of respondents who wanted to shift from manual fertilizing to mechanized fertilizer application
   15) Current status of chemical spraying
   16) Rate of respondents who wanted to shift to mechanized spraying application
   Rice harvesting is one of the main works in rice production. After 2009, rice combine harvester became very popular machine in the Mekong Delta. Rice is harvested by combine harvester in  most of area, however, most of farmers use harvesting services done by service providers. We checked the latest machine service situation with following 17), 18), 19), 20), 21), 22).
   17) Current status of rice harvesting by cropping pattern and season
   18) Origin of business providing farm machine services for harvesting by rice cropping patterns
   19) Waiting time for companies providing combine harvester services for harvesting
   20) Method for obtaining a combine harvester for harvesting
   21) Rate of respondents who demanded a shorter waiting time for harvesting
   22) Rate of respondents wanted to purchase a combine harvester
   We wanted to know over all mechanization demand or difficulties in each working processes and cropping patterns, and checked those with following 23), 24), 25).
   23) Difficulty of implementing mechanization in rice production according to each stage (difficulty level)
   24) Priority of mechanization in each stage of rice production
   25) Willingness to purchase agricultural machinery by cropping pattern
   Line 206-223, Second study questionnaires:
   Added background ahead of questionnaires, Farming service by machine is necessary function of rice production in the Mekong Delta, because each farming scale is rather small and average farmer households cannot own machines by themselves. We interviewed 75 business providers for farm machinery services in six provinces in 2013. Table 2 shows the location of businesses which supply four-wheel drive (4W) tractors, two-wheel drive (2W) tractors, or combine harvesters. The survey was designed to increase understanding of the operation and economic situation of machinery supply
   ----------------------------
   not all, but the main results of interview reflected to the “Results and Discussion” section.
3. In row 84 is written “The General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) issues statistical report every year and a more detailed report every 5 years: This 5 year links National Assembly year in 5years interval. Practically 2006, 2011, 2016.
   Our research conducted from 2013 to 2014, and just added such information in the manuscript. Because, I have established our Agricultural Research Institute in Vietnam inside Can Tho University campus in early 2013, and started our researches targeting improvement of Vietnamese agriculture. This research was our first deep survey in the Mekong Delta done in 2013-2014. After this research, we conducted many other researches including technical development. However, this basic research helped us our basic understanding about the Mekong Delta farming situation.
4. Line 42-43, more than 60 % of Vietnamese rice for export:
   changed to, more than 90 % of Vietnamese rice for export: which refer to [1] Dao, T.A. The Domestic Rice Value Chain in the Mekong Delta.
5. Line 44, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, has experienced rice shortages.:
   changed to, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, they are still rice importing countries continuously.
6. Line 46, Moreover, the quality of rice from Vietnam is considered to be low in the international rice trade.:
   changed to, Moreover, the quality of Vietnamese rice is evaluated low grade in the international rice trade market (Figure 1): added reference USDA data with figure.
7. Line 55-56, several studies dealing with agricultural mechanization and the situation of rice-producing farmer households in Vietnam:
   changed to,  several studies dealing with agricultural mechanization and the situation of rice producing farmer households in Vietnam [9]: added reference paper, Kompas, T.: The Effects of Rice Export Policy on Regional Income, Prices and the Poor: A ‘Bottom-up’ Regional CGE model for Vietnam
8. Line 61-62, In this regard, Japanese scholars have conducted the most research on the level of mechanization in agricultural processes:
   changed to,  In this regard, we have conducted the most research on the level of mechanization in agricultural processes. : We gathered the survey team, however, most of survey team members were Vietnamese University Professors, lecturers and students, it is not correct to write “Japanese scholars”
9. Line 84-86, In recent years, Vietnam has industrialized and become a major production location for multinational corporations:
   changed to more specific description: After economic reform policy “Doi Moi” was announced at National Assembly of Vietnam in 1986, Vietnam has industrialized and become a major production location for multinational corporations successfully.
10. Line 101-105, There are several research papers related to Vietnamese agriculture. In particular, research papers by researchers at the Institute of Developing Economies – Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-Jetro) were informative for our study.
    changed to more detail explanation: There are many research papers related to Vietnamese agriculture. In particular, research papers by researchers at the Institute of Developing Economies – Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-Jetro) were informative for our study, especially, research for farmers environment, such as transition of farmers’ communities, life style, agricultural products value chain, government policy, etc. [5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13]: referring their 6 papers.
11. Line 113-115, Rice is the main crop cultivated in these provinces; however, rice cropping intensity and the geographical conditions of each province are different:
    Description is almost same but attached explanation made clear difference of North, middle, and South of the Mekong Delta :
    Rice is the main crop cultivated in these provinces, however, rice cropping intensity and the geographical conditions of each province are different as follows;
    Northern part of the Mekong Delta, An Giang and Dong Thap provinces are representative of flood affected areas with high intensity of rice production where double or triple rice cropping is common. These two provinces also feature large farms compared to farms in the Mekong Delta provinces.
    Tien Giang and Hau Giang provinces are representative of the middle region of the Mekong Delta, where the flooding is minimal, yet high intensity rice cropping takes place.
    The Soc Trang and Ca Mau provinces are located in the southern coastal region, therefore, not enough water comes from the Mekong river and partly saline soils are available in those region, where traditional single season rice or rice-shrimp farming is practiced
12. Line 130, Figure 2. Mekong Delta Agricultural land use map(2008):
    added some explanation: Land use areas have not changed most of the Mekong Delta areas since this 2008 map up to 2014, except for some expansion of triple crops area from two crops area by the irrigation system improvements.
13. Line 135, explanation of Figure 3:
    It is the reference photo of typical Southern coastal area which I took at Ca Mau paddy field, which is wet, muddy and saline soil area.
14. Line 152, Table 1.:
    We picked up each 70 farmer households in 6 provinces totally 420 households for our interview. Cropping patterns are different depends on paddy environment or local climate.
15. Line 163-165, method:
    explanation of “method” is already appeared in line 26-29 in this document:
    In our surveyed six provinces, rice seed sowing method, such as manual direct seeding “broadcasting”, manual row sowing by drum seeder, and manual transplanting, is different in each area based on climate, water supply, soil, season or other conditions. We checked sowing methods in each province and cropping pattern separately with following 4), 5), 6).
16. Line 313-314, Figure 6 shows the ratio of agricultural tractors to ha of farmland by crop season.:
    changed to clearer explanation, Figure 7 shows one tractor’s covering area (hectare) for rice cultivation in each Mekong Delta provinces and crop season.
17. Line 338, Manual transplanting is dominant method used in the Soc Trang province, as farmers in this region plant a special rice variety which has a long growth duration and does not grow well when using manual direct seeding (broadcasting) or row sowing.:
    changed to clearer explanation, Manual transplanting is dominant method used in southern coastal Soc Trang province, as farmers in this region plant a special rice variety which has a long growth duration, which is  nearly 160 days and does not grow well when using manual direct seeding (broadcasting) or row sowing method.
18. Line 348-350, Recently, a certain percentage of farmers want to shift from broadcasting or row sowing to machine transplanting.
    changed to more practical numbers: Recently, a certain percentage of farmers want to shift from broadcasting or row sowing to machine transplanting. Which was 3.4 % to 4.8 % depending on cropping patterns (Table 10).
19. Line 362-364, Rice farmers usually apply about 300 to 500 kg of fertilizer per hectare in one season.:
    added more information, Rice farmers usually apply about 300 to 500 kg of fertilizers (N P K total) per hectare in one season, because cultivation of 2 crops to 3 crops per year as well as manual direct seeding method “broadcasting” requires continuous fertilizer supply to maintain soil fertility
20. Line 405-407, Figure 10:
    This figure shows expenditure share of farmer house hold by interview base:
    added description on the graph for easy understanding.
21. Line 412-413, This Decision created a great propulsion effect on agricultural mechanization in Mekong Delta:
    changed to simple sentence, This Decision accelerated the Mekong Delta farmers to purchase agricultural machineries and upgrade mechanization of farming in recent years
22. Line 419-412, Hanoi city government issued decree No.6454/UBND-DT on 9 Nov. 2016, and Thai Binh provincial government issued decree No.2265/UBND-NNTNMT on 7 June 2019. The government has also promoted the construction of biogas processing systems at pig farms:
    This explanation is just a official regulation numbers (a kind of regal words)
23. Line 449-453, We learned various movements of agriculture in Mekong Delta regarding land use, farmers’ structure, and mechanization transition based on our gathered information. Sooner or later, we expect rice seed sowing or transplanting method will be mechanized. Then, most of the cultivation process will be mechanized, or even IT technologies will make farming life to be more convenient, those changes will also help retaining farmers within farming villages.:
    This is what we learned from our research. And also what we are targeting after this research.
    
    *Above "Line number" refers our revised manuscript.

We hope you will understand our revision contents and our manuscript will be handled to the next step in AgriEngineering.

This study examines the trend of rice cultivation methods used in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, which is also linked with the Vietnam government policy of urban and rural development.

Our research first outlines the level of mechanization in each of the four major processes of rice cultivation. We subsequently carry out interviews with farmer households, farm machinery service providers, and owners of large farms. Our results show that the sowing process is the least mechanized process among the four major processes of rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta. Therefore, our study suggests that the further mechanization of sowing processes be pursued in order to advance the development of sustainable agriculture in Vietnam. We think this study is useful because it outlines factors which both enable and inhibit the adoption of further mechanization, while also identifying major trends in the field of rice cultivation in Vietnam. Moreover, this data can contribute to the crafting of policies and initiatives to upgrade productivity and rice quality of Vietnam through suitable mechanization or other improvements.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership. The manuscript has been carefully reviewed by an experienced editor whose first language is English and who specializes in editing papers written by scientists whose native language is not English.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Takeo Matsubara

Yanmar Global Expert Co., Ltd.

1-32, Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013, Japan

Phone No: +81-90-98657630

Email Address: [email protected]      or 

             [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

some writing  mistakes 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

21st November 2020

To the 1st Reviewer of AgriEngineering

Dear Dr. Reviewer,

Please find enclosed our revised manuscript entitled “Transition of Agricultural Mechanization, Agricultural Economy, Government Policy and Environmental Movement related to Rice Production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam after 2010.” with manuscript ID agriengineering-963412, which contents were modified from the previous manuscript based on your instruction. We also changed the title from the previous one “Recent trends in agricultural machinery, the agricultural economy, government policy, and environmental movements related to rice production in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam,” because of a comment from the 2nd reviewer that this research shows not “Recent Trends.” However, we also added updated information up to 2019 data.

Followings are revised points and some explanations;

1. Title was changed as above.
2. References were added: 30 in total
3. Line 460-506: Added data and analysis: original manuscript contains survey data of 2013 and 2014 mainly. Then, we collected statistics and other information up to 2019, and added more recent information.
4. Line 440-459: Added more details of environmental issues.

We hope you will understand our revision contents and our manuscript will be handled to the next step in AgriEngineering.

This study examines the trend of rice cultivation methods used in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, which is also linked with the Vietnam government policy of urban and rural development. I have established our Agricultural Research Institute in Vietnam inside  Can Tho University in early 2013, and started our studies targeting improvement of Vietnamese agriculture. This research was our first deep survey in the Mekong Delta done in 2013-2014.

In this revised version, we added information after 2014 up to 2019.

Our activities are not only survey and creating papers, but also propose practical improvement actions to government authorities or farmers, and also develop new technology by ourselves to meet the demand of Vietnamese agriculture.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership.

We look forward to hearing good news from you very soon.

Sincerely,

Takeo Matsubara

Yanmar Global Expert Co., Ltd.

1-32, Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013, Japan

Phone No: +81-90-98657630

Email Address: [email protected]      or 

             [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The new version of manuscript is a little better, but it must be improved.

1. I think that in the title you can't write "Resent Trend in Agricultural Machinery, the Agricultural Economy...." because the data old enough 6-7 year (2013-2014) or older. You wrote that  "General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) issues statistical report every year and a more detailed report every 5 years. This 5 year links National Assembly year in 5years interval. Practically 2006, 2011, 2016." As I understood new statistical report should be in 2021. My suggestion is to wait and update the data. Would be good for updates and surveys, then you can see what has changed over the recent years.
2. The biggest disadvantage that the data is without statistical analysis. This must be provided in the serious scientific article.
3. At the section "Results and discussion" discussion is very weak, usually based only on one or another statistical fact.
4. Very small list of literature sources, only 13 references.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

21st November 2020

To the 2nd Reviewer of AgriEngineering

Dear Dr. Reviewer,

First of all, thank you very much for your kind instruction. We apology our late revision because it took certain time to collect additional information to fulfill your requirements. But it is a great opportunity for us to study deeper.

Please find enclosed our revised manuscript entitled “Transition of Agricultural Mechanization, Agricultural Economy, Government Policy and Environmental Movement related to Rice Production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam after 2010.” with manuscript ID agriengineering-963412, which contents were modified from the previous manuscript based on your instruction. We changed the title from the previous one “Recent trends in agricultural machinery, the agricultural economy, government policy, and environmental movements related to rice production in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam,” according to your instruction because our manuscript does not show “Recent Trends.” However, by this chance, we added updated information up to 2019 data.

Followings are revised points and some explanations;

1. Title was changed as above accordingly.
2. We followed your instruction to collect latest issue of General Statistics Office of Vietnam and added information in the manuscript (Line 460-506). At this moment complete issue available up to 2018 version, and incomplete version of 2019. We referred all of them.
3. Statistical analysis: in the additional part(Line 460-506), all 3 graphs are our original ones created from several data. We confirmed several facts based on such data and background factors.
4. References: we added necessary references and finally 30 references are listed.
5. 3. Mechanization trend analysis and findings; added more detail and logical information
6. 5. Environmental movements; added more detail and information with 3 environmental subjects.

For the marked part in your checked document:

7. Line 57: Source USDA ; created from the data of USDA
8. Line 114: In order to complete this study, we carried out five steps of direct data collection from stakeholders
9. Line 140: Source: Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning (SIWRP); SIWRP is an organization belongs to Vietnam government
   http://iwrp.gov.vn/
10. Line 144-156: Rice shrimp farm area occupies nearly 200,000ha in the Mekong Delta.
11. Line 149: 12 provinces; in the Mekong Delta, there are 12 provinces and one city(Can Tho city) = sometimes mentiond “total 13 provinces and city” but it is not accurate.
12. Line 303-304: The Climate Change Affecting Land use in the Mekong Delta: Adaption of Rice-based Cropping Systems (CLUES) project; this project is joint project among Can Tho University, IRRI, and other international organizations
    https://dragon.ctu.edu.vn/en/pr/154-climate-change-affecting-land-use-in-the-mekong-delta-adaptation-of-rice-based-cropping-systems-clues.html

We hope you will understand our revision contents and our manuscript will be handled to the next step in AgriEngineering.

This study examines the trend of rice cultivation methods used in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, which is also linked with the Vietnam government policy of urban and rural development. I have established our Agricultural Research Institute in Vietnam inside  Can Tho University in early 2013, and started our studies targeting improvement of Vietnamese agriculture. This research was our first deep survey in the Mekong Delta done in 2013-2014.

In this revised version, we updated the information up to 2019.

Our activities are not only doing survey or creating papers, but also proposing practical improvement actions to government authorities or farmer's associations, and developing new technology by ourselves to meet the demand of Vietnamese agriculture.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership.

We look forward to hearing good news from you very soon.

Sincerely,

Takeo Matsubara

Yanmar Global Expert Co., Ltd.

1-32, Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013, Japan

Phone No: +81-90-98657630

Email Address: [email protected]      or 

             [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

1. The main disadvantage of this article is the lack of statistical analysis. Statistical analysis can also be performed on survey data as well. It is possible to calculate means, their errors or standard deviations.
2. The authors of the article ignored the requirements "Instructions for Authors" Word template line 122-123: "References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including citations in tables and legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript."
3. All source must be involved in reference list. It means Title of Site, available online too. You can see this requirement in "Instructions for Authors" Word template line 148. You have provided online links only in response to comments, but you must include this in the references list.
4. Requirement "Instructions for Authors" Word template line 130-131. "In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [1], [1–3] or [1,3]. In this manuscript is provided for example [5][6] or [15][16][17][18][27][28][29] and so on, but not [5,6] or [15-18,27-29].
5. Still now it is not clear who made photos (Figure 3 and Figure 9)? It must be provided the author or the number of literature source.
6. Other remarks are given in the article

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

2nd December 2020

To the 2nd Reviewer of AgriEngineering

Dear Reviewer,

First of all, thank you very much for your 3rd instruction dated 24 Nov 2020 12:37:38. We apology our late revision because it took certain time to collect additional information to fulfill all of your requirements.

Please find enclosed our revised manuscript entitled “Transition of Agricultural Mechanization, Agricultural Economy, Government Policy and Environmental Movement related to Rice Production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam after 2010.” with manuscript ID agriengineering-963412. Title was changed based on your last (2nd) instruction.

Followings are revised points and some explanations;

1. Statistical analysis: For the data from our original survey, we added Standard Deviation record; Table 17 for Figure 5 & Figure 17.
   or added original records for graph; Table 4 for Figure 9.
2. Reference : All 31 references are numbered, appeared in the text, and listed at the end of the manuscript.
3. All sources were listed in the reference list and added all available online links.
4. Reference numbers followed the instructed manner, such as [15-18, 27-30]
5. Photos: All the photos were taken by the authors(by myself) except for one catalog photo. We added explanations at all photos, such as, Source: Photo was taken by the author at ** in**.

For the marked part in your checked document:

6. new Line 116: In order to complete this study, we carried out five steps of direct data collection from stakeholders ….. changed to
   In order to get real data from stakeholders in each category, we carried out five steps of direct data collection from stakeholders
7. new Line 126-154: changed to
   Northern part of the Mekong Delta, An Giang and Dong Thap provinces are representative of flood affected areas with high intensity of rice production where double or triple rice cropping is common, because the two provinces have a good climate for triple cropping, however lack of flood prevention embankment areas are usually double cropping (Figure 3). These two provinces also feature large farms compared with farms in other Mekong Delta provinces.
   Tien Giang and Hau Giang provinces are representative of the middle region of the Mekong Delta, where the flooding is minimal yet high intensity rice cropping takes place.
   **also added Inundation map “Figure 3” for better understanding.
8. new Line 170-171: in all 12 provinces and one city (Can Tho city)
   changed to (because Can Tho city is not a province, and listed all)
   in all 12 provinces (Dong Thap, An Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Hau Giang, Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Long An, Tra Vinh) and one city (Can Tho city)
9. new Line 301-302: from 1.98ha/household in 2010 to 2.13ha/household in 2014(Figure 4)
   this part was not changed : Figure 5(ex. Figure 4) Farm area in 2010/Total shows 1.98ha, and Farm area in 2014/Total shows 2.13, however data source was not from GSO, but only by the survey of Mekong Delta Development Research Institute of Can Tho University (MDI-CTU) in 2014. For STD, please refer Table 17.
10. Figure 11: Agrochemical sprayers photo: replaced with our original photos and one catalog photo. Source was also described.
11. Added some photos for better understanding: Figure 10: photo of drum seeder photo, Figure 12: tractor reconditioning company’s photo. Figure 16: fertilizer applicator photo.
    
    

We hope you will understand our revision contents and our manuscript will be handled to the next step in AgriEngineering.

In this 3rd revision, for better understanding, we explained the trend of each processes more clearly, such as land preparation, sowing, fertilizing/chemical spraying, with each related background in more details.

Our activities are not only survey and creating papers, but also propose improvement actions to government authorities practically or develop new technology by ourselves to meet the demands of Vietnamese agriculture.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership.

We look forward to hearing good news from you very soon.

Sincerely,

Takeo Matsubara

Yanmar Global Expert Co., Ltd.

1-32, Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013, Japan

Phone No: +81-90-98657630

Email Address: [email protected]      or 

             [email protected]

Round 4

Reviewer 2 Report

The quality of the manuscript is better than before, but should be corrected again. My comments:

1. The methods of statistical analysis should be described in the section "Materials and methods".
2. All source must be involved in reference list.  Title of site or available online page too. It must provided in references list, but not separated. After Figures you must provided only number of references, for example [3, 4] or [6-9] and so forth...
   
3. Data cannot be repeated in tables and figures. The same data  are presented in Figures 5 and 17 and Table 17 or Figure 9 and Table 4.
   
   
4. All surveys data can be statistically analyzed. In this manuscript statistically analyzed is only "Change of farmland size/household from 2010 to 2014, and 2018" (Figure 17).  Therefore, it can still said that the biggest disadvantage of this article is the lack of statistical analysis.
   
5. Other remarks are given in the manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

10th December 2020

To the 2nd Reviewer of AgriEngineering

Dear Reviewer,

First of all, thank you very much for your 4th instruction dated 5th Dec 2020 23:09:14. We apology our late revision since it took certain time to fulfill all of your requirements.

Please find enclosed our revised manuscript entitled “Transition of Agricultural Mechanization, Agricultural Economy, Government Policy and Environmental Movement related to Rice Production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam after 2010.” with manuscript ID agriengineering-963412.

Followings are revised points and some explanations;

1. Statistical analysis: we conducted
2. Reference : All references are numbered, appeared in the text, and listed at the end of the manuscript including references for figures as you instructed. All the available online pages were described as well.
3. Some tables were deleted since which had some duplicate information.
4. All surveys data were statistically analyzed by Chi-square test or Standard deviation on all the pointed tables or figures.

For the marked part in your checked document:

5. new Line 107: deleted “policy” and explained more practically:
   related government regulations, such as Laws, Decisions, Decrees, and other instructions
6. new Line 115-119: collected data analysis:
   we conducted Chi-square test and Standard deviation on all relevant collected data.
7. old Line 336-340: old Figure 5. Average farm area and rice cultivation land size per farmer household in Mekong Delta 2010 and 2014, was deleted, because most of old-Figure. 5 data are included in new Figure 16 (Line 653 – 658).
8. new Line 383-388: Figure 8. Average rice cultivation land per tractor.by crop season and province in Mekong Delta. Based on your instruction, we re-checked MD data, and found it was correct. Because tractor population are biased depends on a province, among 58,859 tractors, around 10,000 units in Soc Trang, and around 5,000 units in each Tra Vinh, Dong Thap, An Giang, and Kien Giang provinces. Tractor population in Soc Trang province influenced average MD data.
9. old Line 391-394: old Table 4. was deleted, because of data duplication with new Figure 8 (old Figure9).
10. Chi-square test was conducted on Table 4, Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, Table 9, Table 10, Table 11, Table 12, Table 13, Table 14, Table 15, and Figure 12. However, Figure 14 (old Figure 15) was not modified because this figure was just accumulated data from Table 5, 6, 7.
11. Line 653-657: Figure 16 (old Figure 17 and old Table 17), old Table 17 was deleted, because of data duplication. SD data for farm area added on Figure 16 graph.
    To your question, STD is big and bigger than the average because we did the survey for different farming systems (rice-rice-rice, rice-upland crop, rice-shrimp, fruit, ...) and in different sub agroecological zones in the Mekong Delta.
    
    

Thank you very much again for your kind instructions to us.

We hope you will understand our revision contents and our manuscript will be handled to the next step in AgriEngineering.

Including the result of this paper, we would like to contribute to the improvement of Vietnamese agriculture with our experiences and knowledges in Vietnam.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership.

We look forward to hearing good news from you very soon.

Sincerely,

Takeo Matsubara

Yanmar Global Expert Co., Ltd.

1-32, Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013, Japan

Phone No: +81-90-98657630

Email Address: [email protected]      or 

             [email protected]