PONE-D-23-18150The Effect of producer groups on the Productivity and Technical efficiency of smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana.PLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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: 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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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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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

Reviewer #3: 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: The authors studied the effect of producer group soon technoical efficiency of cocoa farmers in Ahoaafo Ano disctricts. The authors used the term 'producer groups'. In cocoa growig areas in Ghana, the producer groups are the same as farmer based on organistions. Tens of studies on tecnhnical effciency of cocoa in Ghana have used farmer-based organisation (producer groups) as an inefficiency variables. This must be appropriately acknowleged. Although you mentiond farmer organisations in page 9 ans supported with Asare et al. (2019), interstingly, oyu never returned to that citation. You many go through some of the studies at this link:https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=technical+efficiency+cocoa&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=Nigeria&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_vis=1.

To this end, the consideration of producer groups is not a novelty. What is a departure is using farmer-based organisation/producer groups to bifurcate the data or analysis.

On page 20 you discussed the effect of producer groups using studies such as Abebaw & Haile (2013), Onumah et

al. (2013), Ma et al. (2018) and Olagunju et al. (2021). These introduced FBO as an ineffciency variable. Interestingly, whilst Asare et al. (2019) was not used here, only Onumah et al. (2013) is a Ghanaian study in this citations.

I recommend the authors acknowledge that the cocoa producer group is the same as the FBO. Also, the authors must acknowlegde the subtstantial cocoa efficiecny literature that used FBO as an ineffciency variable.

Reviewer #2: This manuscript is very well-written and employs technically sound procedures to describe, analyze and present the data and results. The statistical and econometric modeling is robust and authors have demonstrated good understanding of the theoretical considerations for using these tools in the context of smallholder technical efficiency and productivity studies. The variables span the range of issues associated with smallholder environment in the area of study and the researchers descriptions of the existing constraints dovetails neatly into the urgency to investigate the role of producer groups. The consideration given to selection bias and the approach adopted to address it is consistent with current thinking in the field. The sequencing of the information follows standard research procedures in the social sciences and agricultural economics. I can also add that the subject-matter of the paper is topical in the context of agricultural development in Africa in general and specially in West Africa and Ghana. So, I have a very favourable opinion about the manuscript in terms of the problem context, stated objectives, methodology, and presentation of the results. I recommend it for publication without hesitation.

Reviewer #3: Review Comments to the Author has been uploaded as an attachment.

Overall, this interesting well written study tackles an important issue of how to improve the technical efficiency of coco farmers through encouraging producer group (both cooperatives and farmer associations). I think there is the need for this study to allow research and policy to reach far-reaching conclusions. However, I have several comments that can be considered to enhance the publication potential.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Ajuruchukwu Obi

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments on Manuscript PONE-D-23-18150.docx

The Effect of producer groups on the Productivity and Technical efficiency of smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana.

PONE-D-23-18150R1

Dear Dr. Hejkrlik,

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.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Mohammed Al-Mahish, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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 #3: (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: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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 #3: Pl/s chech the typewriting errors in the references list (for instance reference 3 , 61,... and others).

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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.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

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 #3: Yes: Mutasim Elrasheed

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