Soil salinity
Salinity is another important condition of the soil which
can strongly affect grain quality. A comparison of rice
cultivars grown in low salinity and high salinity regions
showed that an increased level of salinity significantly
lowered protein content in seven of nine cultivars, but
had no effect on amylose content and the alkali spreading
value (Juliano and El-Shirbeeny 1981). Another study
indicated that grains of both saline tolerant and susceptible
cultivars grown on saline soils have higher storage
protein content, but less translucent grain, lower starch
and amylose content than grown on normal soil. Thus,
these differences were not related to salinity tolerance
(Siscar-Lee et al. 1990).