PONE-D-21-13599

Production Efficiency and Change Characteristics of China’s Apple Industry in Terms of Planting Scale

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Yu Sun,

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[Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Y.S.; methodology, Y.S. and L.Y.; data curation, Y.S.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.S. and Z.W.; editing, Y.S and L.M.There is no financial competition for this article.].

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[This research was funded by the Shandong Province Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System (SDAIT-01-13), the Project of Shandong Provincial Department of Education (No: M2020111), and the high-level talent research start-up fund of Qingdao Agricultural University (No: 663 / 1116710).]

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6. Please amend the manuscript submission data (via Edit Submission) to include author Yonghua Lu.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: The paper analyses a quite interesting and important topic of apple production of China and its productivity parameters based on the available statistical datasets, with the appropriate methodology. The results, as well as the conclusions are correct and based on the metodology. Conclusions are right and also limitations are indicated which fact is more tan welcomed.

Howevere, for agreeing with publication of this paper, I suggest:

- The keywords should be more focused and precise (e.g. indicating China; considering apple production instead of apple industry).

- No formal and separated literature review in the paper can be found. I recommend to do one, in a critical, analytical and comprehensive way where the essential international sources are processed.

After these improvements, I can accept this paper for publishing.

Reviewer #2: The authors need to more accurately take into account the peculiarities of apple production (biological, temporal, climatic, organizational, technological, etc.) and include in the article the statistical data used in the calculations.

Reviewer #3: The submitted manuscript meets the requirements for scientific articles. The authors asked research questions.

What is the impact of planting scale in the apple industry on production efficiency, as an important cost-intensive factor? What is the threshold for a moderate planting scale?

The article presents the measurement of the apple industry performance level on the basis of the Malmquist productivity index using DEA. In the study, a threshold model based on the measurement of apple production efficiency was built, which examines the threshold effect of the apple planting scale on apple production efficiency.

Previous studies have focused less on the relationship between the scale of planting and apple productivity.

There has been little research in the existing literature on the non-linear effects of the apple planting scale on yield. Based on the threshold model theory, this study focuses on the non-linear effect of the apple planting scale on yield. The results of this study confirm that there is a threshold impact of the apple production scale on production efficiency - this does not mean that the larger the planting scale, the better.

The authors reviewed the literature and indicated that the improvement in production efficiency is the result of many factors - family relationships, apple planting experience, natural environmental factors (e.g. climate change, geographic location and natural disasters), equipment and management style (e.g. pesticide use) and irrigation, marketing and organization).

All these are important factors that determine that the expansion of the production scale affects the improvement of production efficiency.

The authors investigated the impact of planting scale in the apple industry.

They identified important factors that determine that a change in the scale of production improves its efficiency.

The research used data on seven provinces from statistical yearbooks. The authors report that some of the missing data are based on calculations from the yearly data.

I suggest clarification in section 2.1. Research area and data source studies, which have missing data based on calculations from other year data.

I recommend the article for publication.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr. K.A. Zhichkin

Reviewer #3: Yes: Aleksandra Łakomiak

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Submitted filename: Zhichkin review.docx

Production Efficiency and Change Characteristics of China’s Apple Industry in Terms of Planting Scale

PONE-D-21-13599R1

Dear Dr. Yonghua Lu,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

László Vasa, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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