Evaluating Land Suitability and Potential Climate Change Impacts on Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Production in Ethiopia
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The work addresses an interesting topic. It deals with agroclimatology and presents the assessment of fitness of Ethiopian lands for cultivation of Medicago sativa carried out based on biophysical factors and climatic conditions. The results of the work can be used for adaptation of the Ethiopian agriculture to climate change.
Before publication please consider the following remarks / questions and introduce appropriate changes to the manuscript:
- what does the fragment from Lines 84-87 contribute?
- why does the analysis use meteorological data from 1970-2000?
- why are intervals of the precipitation scale in Fig. 5 different?
- why does the analysis use only annual meteorological data?
- which cultivars of Medicago sativa did the simulation include?
- in what way was genetic and agrotechnological progress taken into account in modelling?
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Review of paper with title:
Evaluating land suitability and potential climate change impacts on alfalfa (Medicago Sativa) production in Ethiopia
This paper deals with evaluation of land areas suitable for alfalfa fodder production in Ethiopia under climate change scenarious. There not many studies have been done on this topic, so I really appreciate, that authors decided to solve this interesting topic and found literature. It is really important to solve such kind of studies, especially in Africa. And it is clear, has ongoing climate change has impact on the livestock production as well.
I recommend to add aims of paper into introduction. I appreciate Fig. 2 - it is very clear and important chart. I recommend to enlarge legend in Fig. 4 (it is illegible in this form) and resolution of all figures. And enlarge scale in Fig. 7 as well. And explain, why do you use pathway till 2060 (ussually it is used till 2100).
After adjustment, I recommend publishing this reseach paper.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx