PONE-D-23-16291How much of the Mexican agricultural supply is produced by small farms, and how?PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ibarrola-Rivas,

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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?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: In this manuscript (MS) the respected authors have written about the contributions of small farms to the Mexican food industry. The MS contains several citations relevant to the topic discussed. The authors cite documents supporting and opposing their theory.

Major issues: none

Minor issues:

There are some minor typoes and missing punctuation marks at the end of a sentences.

In the PDF format Figure 1 is pixelated. I'm nt sure if this is caused by the editorial system (e.g. downscaling the resolution) or the original image was less than 300 DPI in quality.

The english of the Materials and methods section could be improved.

Please correct the name of Schetjman to Schejtman.

Line 90: FAO, 2014 is not listed in references.

In line 131 the correct citation is: (Bustamante et al., 2017)

In line 137: (Sánchez, 2003)

Line 186: correctly: de Ita

In line 220 I would use beef cows or cows for meat production instead of "fattening cows". In lines 222 and 223, and later on instead of "fattening" I'd rahther use the expression "for meat production".

In line 246 instead of "recycled seeds" I'd suggest to use "farm saved seeds". Also in line 247 "improved" seeds should be rephrased to correctly specify/clarify the meaning. Line 253 use "fodder crops" instead of "feed crops". Line 271 farms in prular at the end of the sentence. Line 277 use "fodder crops" instead of "animal feed". Line 286 use "cattle" instead of "bovine".

I would suggest to explain why protected growing is more efficient than other production methods. For example in protected cultivation plants could be grown year round, and because more of the environmental factors can be controlled. Also it would be worth mentioning that the cultivation there is more intensive, and growers use high yielding cultivars/seeds.

In section 3.2 the authors write about "chemical fertilizers". I was wondering if this could be rephrased in the MS as "inorganic fertilizers" as in my opinion it describes them more accurately. Also in this section "organic fertilizers" need clarification. Does this phrase mean that these fertilizers are certified Organic by some authorities or this just menas that these fertilizers are animal byproducts (like manure) and compost?

Line 343: FAOSTAT, 2019is not listed in references.

Line 365 add a space after the comma: "cropland, 16 pigs ...".

Line 403, please omit "robust".

Line 525 correctly: de Ita, ...

Lines 421 and 540: What is the correct name of the Author, Leff or Left? Please change it both places to match.

Line 549: Lowder, S. K., Sánchez, M. V., & Bertini, R. (2021) is not cited in the text.

Reviewer #2: This is a very interesting subject matter especially for developing countries agricultural economies. My first worry with this research is the fact that it didnot take into account stable crop production. This means that important production for home consumption and gifts has been neglected somehow and therefore the results of this analysis might not be acurate. This may explain the reason why their results are much lower than the national reported estimates. I will suggest they look for a way to include this data either through a case study or so and redo the analysis.

Elswhere, some of the percentages did not sum up to 100 meaning there are some problems with the calculations

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: 27_TNP_PONE-D-23-16291.pdf

PONE-D-23-16291R1How much of the Mexican agricultural supply is produced by small farms, and how?PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ibarrola-Rivas,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Oct 29 2023 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Noé Aguilar-Rivera

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: I still think this manuscript has a very important place in food security research and development in developing countries. But it is really weak with serious adjustments to be made on the data used and the methodology. See my comments in the manuscript.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

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Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: TNPI-04-09-2023-PONE-D-23-16291_R1_reviewer.pdf

How much of the Mexican agricultural supply is produced by small farms, and how?

PONE-D-23-16291R2

Dear Dra. Maria-Jose Ibarrola Ibarrola-Rivas

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,

Noé Aguilar-Rivera

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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