El Niño’s Effects on Southern African Agriculture in 2023/24 and Anticipatory Action Strategies to Reduce the Impacts in Zimbabwe

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Review of ' El Niño effects on southern African agriculture in 2023/24, anticipatory action strategies to reduce the impacts in Zimbabwe' by Hillary Mugiyo et al.

General comments:

The manuscript proposed by Hillary Mugiyo et al. discuss the effects of El Nino in  Southern Africa, call to advocate for anticipatory action to avert El Nino in Southern Africa.The topic chosen for this paper is highly meaningful.

Specific comments:

1、 Could you tell me, Which figure is Figure 1? It displays the anomalies in the Nino 3.4 region from 1982 to 2023? Or does Figure 1 depicts the frequency of below-average rainfall in southern Africa throughout the 10 El Nino events between 1982 and 2013? Is the study period 1982-2013 or 1982-2023? This may determine the reliability of the conclusion.

2、 Please standardize the spelling of 'El Niño' in the text.

3、 El Niño exhibits various types, such as Eastern Pacific El Niño and Central Pacific El Niño. Perhaps this variability in El Niño types is also one of the factors contributing to the fluctuations in ENSO's impact on rainfall. Please incorporate this information near line 128.

4、 What type of El Niño is forecasted for 2023/24, and perhaps, drawing comparisons with historically similar El Niño events, would improve drought preparedness for Zimbabwe in 2023/2024? Please include relevant details.

5、 The third section (lines 162 to 260) primarily derives its framework of activities from the Ministry of Agriculture's drought risk management strategy and recommendations (Table 1). Where can the innovativeness of this paper be observed?.

6、 As there is no content parallel to 4.1, does the numbering such as '4.1' still hold any significance?

7、 The conclusion needs to be further refined.

Author Response

Kindly find the attached comments. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Background and general comments:

 

Overall, the short communication is well-written and informative. It provides a good overview of the impacts of El Niño on southern African agriculture, with a focus on Zimbabwe. The paper also discusses the specific risks of drought, flood, and heat stress to crop production, and the strategies proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture's Drought Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan (2017–2025) to mitigate these implications.

 

Here are some specific recommendations for enhancing the short communication:

1.here is plenty of similar studies related to this study, Drought, crop production, etc. (please see below that you can consult with their reference lists), that need to be more connected with the specific problem of this study.

10.2174/1874331502014010246

10.1080/00103624.2021.1885687

10.1007/s13762-022-04438-8

1-Do the authors need to explain why they choose the selected topic?

 

 Abstract:

1.Write the importance of this study in the first sentence with references…

2.The statistical results should be included in the abstract.

3.Please delete “We” “Our” words from all text of article….

 

Introduction:

In the introduction, you could provide a more concise and to-the-point overview of the paper. For example, you could start by stating the main purpose of the paper, which is to discuss the impacts of El Niño on southern African agriculture and the strategies proposed to mitigate these impacts. You could then briefly discuss the relevance of the topic and the key findings of your study.

In the body of the paper, you could discuss the proposed strategies in more detail. For example, you could explain how each strategy is designed to reduce the risks of drought, flood, and heat stress. You could also discuss the challenges that may be involved in implementing these strategies.

In the conclusion, you could summarize the main points of the paper and reiterate the importance of proactive measures to combat the short- and long-term effects of El Niño. You could also suggest some areas for future research.

 

Here are some additional suggestions:

1.Update all the old references (published before 2016) with recent references….

2.Write the novelty and the main objectives of this study….

3. The introduction section is short. Make it sharp……

Please include a table or figure summarizing the key findings of the paper. This would make it easier for readers to quickly grasp the main points.

Please use more subheadings to break up the text and make it more readable.

Please proofread the text carefully to catch any grammatical or typographical errors.

Overall, the short communication is well-written and informative. With a few minor revisions, it could be even stronger.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

Please strength the conclusion is very short and incorporate a discussion of the study's limitations and future directions within the same section to address them.

 

References:

1.         The References are too much (33 references)??

 

" Update all the old references (published before 2016) with recent references."

Author Response

Kindly find the attached comments. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an interesting brief communication.  It is however unclear what the contribution to the literature is beyond summarizing other more detailed reports on drought preparedness in Zimbabwe. I believe it would strengthen the present work to more clearly state in the introduction and conclusion what is intended as the contribution, and why readers of this journal should find this work of interest.  

Comments on the Quality of English Language

I had no issues with the language, and only noted one typo on line 35.

Author Response

Kindly find the attached comments. Thank you.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The topic is highly current and would search to assess the impacts of phenomena such as El Nino and what actions should be implemented to reduce possible damage.

The article never goes into the specifics of the problem and does not report any particular study or research for the area under study other than a generic climatological analysis of the droughts that occurred during the El Nino years in Zimbabwe. 

It also shows a graph between maize production and the El Nino years where there is a decrease but in the same graph there are years with low production where there is no El Nino, perhaps this trend in production in these years should be explained.

The paper seems to be more of a political as well as an economic analysis of the problem, from a scientific and research point of view the content is minimal and not in depth. 

Author Response

Kindly find the attached comments. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 5 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Title: The title of the article is suggestive and reflects the purpose of the research undertaken.

Keywords: These are relevant to the topic of the paper.

Abstract: The summary complies with the conditions of the publisher for editing the works and briefly presents in this article (communication) some suggestions that are made on anticipatory methods of action to reduce the hazard associated with El Niño in southern Africa, a case study being Zimbabwe.

Introduction: The introductory part presents data from the literature, representative for the subject, on the El Niño, a climate phenomenon whose occurrence causes serious problems for the agricultural industry and rural communities. The aim is to inform policymakers, researchers, and agricultural stakeholders about the importance of proactive measures to combat the short and long-term effects of El Niño and build a more resilient agricultural sector. Highlights the five strongest El Niño events in the past 40 years, on which three e El Niño seasons experienced severe and widespread agricultural droughts across Zimbabwe, four had a drought in the Southern and Eastern parts of Zimbabwe and the five season did not experience the widespread dry conditions in Zimbabwe. The oscillation of El Niño-Southern (ENSO) significantly affects the meteorological models in Zimbabwe and shows that from 1950 to the present El Niño events have recurred irregularly every two to six years. Knowing the oscillations between the events of El Niño and La Niña and the associated climate change, efficient agricultural planning can be done and measures can be taken to mitigate the effect of these phenomena. Based on examining CHIRPS rainfall, result that El Niño occurrences have led to below-average rainfall in Zimbabwe.

Content: During the El Niño appearance, low rainfall and high temperatures negatively influence agricultural crops, greatly reducing production and compromising food security. Reduced rain pluviometry also leads to the impossibility of irrigation and cultivation of agricultural lands. The drought associated with El Niño-induced increases the risk of wildfires in Zimbabwe, fires can affect soil fertility, microbial activity, and agricultural productivity. In Zimbabwe, to protect farmers from El Niño and lessen the effects of drought, the Ministry of Agriculture stepped up efforts to increase drought readiness for the forthcoming 2023–2024 growing season. By implementing proactive solutions, Zimbabwe can increase its resilience to drought occurrences and lessen the long-term socioeconomic and environmental effects. It is also recommended to grow plants tolerant to drought and high temperatures, to invest in the development and reconstruction of irrigation, to adopt water-saving techniques such as drip irrigation, mulching, and conservation agriculture, timely access to accurate and reliable information on climate data, improved feed management, breeding programs for heat and drought tolerant cattle breeds, collected and stored rainwater during the wet season for usage during dry months, building and maintaining grain stores.

Results: The results presented correspond with other experiments.

Conclusions: The conclusions are short and relate to the risk management strategy and activities that can reduce the effects of El Niño and the dry seasons in Zimbabwe.

References: There are 33 references, well chosen and representative of the topic of the work, of which 16 references are from the last five years.

COMMENTS: In general, more attention should be paid to how to arrange the page.

The effects of climate change are being felt more and more at the modal level, agriculture and implicitly food security are greatly affected. Finding methods, variants and counteracting tactics are pressing issues of this century and involve many decision-makers. This communication (article) is very well prepared and presents part of the Program/Measures taken in terms of agriculture and protection of farmers in Zimbabwe, in particular.

Congratulations to the authors!

Author Response

Kindly find the attached comments. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript has been sufficiently improved to warrant publication in Atmosphere.