Biostimulant-Treated Seedlings under Sustainable Agriculture: A Global Perspective Facing Climate Change

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The reviewed manuscript, which is a review of the current knowledge on biostimulants used in agriculture and horticulture, is a very interesting summary of our knowledge on various chemical compounds that can be used to increase the yield of crops and meet the demand for food for the ever-growing number of people in the world. The team of authors from India very aptly notes that biostimulants can be a plant material, micro-organism or any other organic compound that improves the nutritional aspects, vitality, general health and enhances the seed quality performance. They may be effectively utilized in both horticultural and cereal crops. Biostimulants have been gaining interest as they stimulate crop physiology and biochemistry such as, the ratio of leaf photosynthetic pigments (carotenoids and chlorophyll), enhanced antioxidant potential, tremendous root growth, improved nutrient use efficiency (NUE), reduced fertilizers consumption, thus all these properties makes the biostimulants for internal market operations. The reviewed review was prepared with great care and its content contains a lot of valuable information on important issues related to the use of biostimulants, such as: source of biostimulants, biostimulant applications for crop agronomy, implications of biostimulant for abiotic stress tolerance, implication of biostimulants on antioxidant potential, roles of biostimulants on plant's nutrient use efficiency, quality commodity ramification of biostimulants for agri-production, legal framework and limitation of using biostimulants, future insights and challenges. It seems to me that many issues have been clarified in this review and the assessed review can serve as a valuable hint for biostimulant producers on what to pay attention to in their production. The work is written in the correct language, it does not raise any scientific or substantive reservations. A rich selection of reference is sufficient to give a picture of what is being done in this respect in the world. Well-prepared tables and figures complete the content of the review and explain the principle of biostimulators.

Author Response

Pointwise answers to Reviewer 1

No major revision has been suggested. English language editing and style of the manuscript has been done as highlighted by “Track Changes” in the manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Very interesting work. The authors touch upon very important issues of biostimulant-treated seedlings in terms of global perspectives. The paper submitted for review is an excellent literature study based on a review of many scientific articles, most of which were published in the last 10 years.
It is worth emphasizing the fact that the research is conducted on the use of quaternary ammonium salts or ionic liquids as perspective factors. For example, tropinium salts (DOI: 10.1039/c8nj06298f) and many other derivatives of IBA, Betaine, Chline and others. This is something the authors did not pay attention to.
The only criticism for the work is the rather sloppy preparation of the manuscript. Please pay attention to the journals' requirements for quoting literature! Authors in the text use numerical way of quoting literature, while the list of literature has been prepared according to the alphabet. Such a practice is unacceptable, because the reader/reviewer is not able to find the source and thus verify the information.
Moreover, the tables should be adjusted so that they are on one page, if of course it is possible.

Author Response

Pointwise answers to Reviewer 2

No major revision has been suggested.

The manuscript has been revised as per the journal’s format especially the references.

All the references has been added freshly (older ones are deleted and re-inserted new one) strictly following the journals ‘format (Agronomy). The references have been added numerically both in text and bibliography.

The table were adjusted to single page as per the suggestions.

Reviewer 3 Report

This is an excellent review, minor typos will be removed.

Author Response

Pointwise answers to Reviewer 3

No major revision has been suggested.

The manuscript has been revised and minor typographical errors has been removed as highlighted in the text.

English language and style are needful done as highlighted and minor spell check is also needful done.

Reviewer 4 Report

The article presents a contribution to knowledge about biostimulants.

Biostimulants are plant material, microorganism or any other organic compound that improves the nutritional aspects, vitality, general health and enhances the seed quality performance. They may be effectively used in both horticultural and agricultural crops. In this review, the state of the art and future prospects for biostimulant seedlings are reported and discussed. Moreover, special consideration has been given to the application of biostimulants in intensive agricultural systems that minimize the fertilizers usage without affecting quality and yield along with the limits imposed by European Union regulations.

This is a clearly written manuscript. All tables and graphs are clear (but improve the quality of Figure 2), understandable and necessary. The overall quality of the manuscript is good. The references are sufficient and necessary.

The paper needs some editorial corrections.

(Check the references in accordance with the journal style).

Some comments and recommendations have been included in the text.

I think that the paper need some minor revision.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Pointwise answers to Reviewer 4

No major revision has been suggested.

All the figure has been uploaded with high resolution (more than 300 dpi resolution).

All the references were in accordance with the journal style and reinserted to meet the journals standard.

The manuscript has been revised and minor typographical errors has been removed as suggested (highlighted in the text) and minor revisions in the references has been edited (suggested in the pdf file).

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I have no comments on the current form of the manuscript.