Abstract
Decline of rice yield by salty wind is related to the amount of Na adhered to the rice panicles. Generally, the amount of Na (and/or Cl) in solution is determined by titration with silver nitrate,atomic absorption spectrophotometry and ion chromatography.Although the accurate values can be obtained using these methods, the equipment is not available to most farmers. Therefore, we established a new simple and rapid method for evaluation of Na adhered to panicles using an electric conductivity (EC) meter to quickly determine the amount of Na. We found that the amount of salt per panicle of rice plant evaluated with the EC meter was significantly related to the amount of Na per panicle determined using ion chromatography. The larger the amount of salt per panicle determined using the EC meter, the severer the damage observed in the grains. In addition, a negative relationship was observed between the amount of salt per panicle determined with an EC meter and the distance from sea.
