Potential Land Reserves for Agriculture in Indonesia: Suitability and Legal Aspect Supporting Food Sufficiency
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Title: Potential land reserves for agriculture in Indonesia: suitability and legal aspect supporting food sufficiency
The paper “Potential land reserves for agriculture in Indonesia: suitability and legal aspect supporting food sufficiency” aims to identify and evaluate the idle abandoned land based on biophysical suitability, the status of land concessions and forest areas to determine potential land reserves for agricultural development to support food security. The results showed that land ownership and forest status adjusted the total acreage of identified land reserves at different map scales. They proposed that alternative areas from forest conversion or utilizing dryland could be potential alternatives to deal with the lack of land for food production. These results can support agricultural development in relation to the increased population pressure, food demand and security. Therefore, it is suggested for publication after major revision. The following are some suggestions for the authors.
General:
English grammars need to be improved.
Introduction:
L101: Why the legal aspect and its ownership of land reserves were considered? Please provide more statements on the novelty and contributions of this work with respect to current literature and practical problems.
Materials and methods:
2.1. Definition of land reserves: It is likely to be a redundant expression because it is generally known and has plain content. Please shorten this paragraph or some can be moved to section 1.
Figures 1-3: It is hard to read them clearly and please improve their resolution.
It is suggested to provide a table listing the data sources of each index at the end of section 2.
Results and Discussion:
Some Figures are hard to read and please improve their resolution.
Please improve the comparison between your findings and the literature data, such as the differences and similarities in whether to consider the legal aspect and its ownership of land reserves.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
The study looked at investigating potential land reserves for agriculture in Indonesia from the point of view of suitability and legal aspect supporting food sufficiency. It is very topical in the context of population growth and the reduction of agricultural land. However, some shortcomings need to be addressed in the development and the presentation of the study before it can be accepted for publication.
The introduction part should be revised by considering emphasizing the importance of the study both from a scientific and practical point of view. Also, in this part, the steps followed in the article should be described.
The methods used in the spatial analysis of the reserves both at the national and regional level should be detailed more. In addition, the schemes are illegible (probably because of the too low resolution).
In the conclusion part in the conclusion should answer to the question “Why is this study important and what it brings new for scientific/applicative point of view” and it should be based on the results and discussion of your research.
General remark
The maps have too low a resolution to be able to distinguish anything on them.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you for inviting me to review the manuscript. After carefully investigating it, I recommend that the authors undertake a major revision to address some issues that need to be resolved to guarantee publication. Although the content of the manuscript is valuable, the authors should address the following concerns.
First, the literature review and discussions need to express the fundamental benefits of land inventory / reserve land studies, particularly focusing on agricultural lands, and explain how the manuscript contributes to the existing body of knowledge.
Recommended readings to refer:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00396265.2017.1383711
https://doi.org/10.1065/lca2007.10.364
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-5056-7
Second, the authors need to cite more international journals to compare their findings with international scholars. In its current form, the authors put their base on local papers. You need to be more inclusive. In other words, you need to focus on a more international debate. How do your methodology and findings fill the gaps in the domain? What can we learn from your case study?
Third, the figures need to be of higher quality. I cannot make any comment on the figures.
Fourth, the authors should indicate the scale/level of detail of their final reserve land map in the text and justify their selection since they use multiple spatial data resources with different scales and detail levels.
Despite these issues, the content is novel at a country scale and will be interesting for the readers of the journal.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
It is recommended to be accepted in the present form.
Reviewer 3 Report
I appreciate being invited to review the revised manuscript. The authors have done a good job of thoroughly revising the manuscript in response to my previous queries and comments. Based on the changes made, I believe the manuscript is now suitable for publication. Best regards.
