Current Agriculture Research Journal Vol. 4(1), 35-46 (2016) Evaluation of Grain Yield and Aroma of Upland Rice (Pare Wangi var.) as Response to Soil Moisture and Salinity I.G.B. ADWITA ARSA 1,2 *, ARIFFIN 3 , NURUL AINI 3 and H.J.D. LALEL 4 1 Agriculture Faculty of Nusa Cendana University, 2 Post Graduate Program of Agriculture Faculty of Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia. 3 Agriculture Faculty of Brawijaya University, Jl. Veteran, Malang Jawa Timur, Indonesia. 4 Agriculture Faculty of Nusa Cendana University, Jl. Adisucipto, Kupang, NTT, Indonesia. http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CARJ.4.1.03 (Received: December 31, 2015; Accepted: February 04, 2016) ABSTRACT This research aims to identify the effects of soil moisture and salinity on aroma quality and yield of Pare Wangi rice. Aroma quality was determined based on 2-Asetyl-1-pirolin (2AP) content. This study was conducted in Pare Wangi, Kori village, East Nusa Tenggara Province. Completely randomized design was used in the study, consisted of two-factor treatment: soil moisture and salinity level. The results showed that Pare Wangi produce higher grain yield (39.55 g/pot) at high soil moisture levels (125% FC). It was decrease to be 32.87 g/pot and 22.36 for soil moisture level 100% FC and 75% FC repectively. At high soil moisture ( 125% FC) and 2.5 g NaCl.kg -1 soil caused an increase of 2AP rice content up to 1.84 ppb. Soil moisture at 75 % FC without NaCl was the best treatment for producing the highest 2AP content (3.19 ppb). 2AP content of rice was positively correlated to rice-aroma score. Keywords: Aromatic Rice, Soil Moisture, Soil Salinity, Proline, 2-Asetyl-1-pirolin. INTRODUCTION East Nusa Tenggara province is one of rice producing region in Indonesia, which continues to increase rice production to meet the demand of rice in this area. For all this time, the shortage has been always resolved by bringing rice from outside the region. The development of upland rice is the most appropriate solutions to increase rice production in the province because of its potential of dry land availability is quite extensive. Because of that reason, upland rice varieties need to be selected for more easily adopted by local farmers, either due to consideration of adaptability, taste or economic value. Aromatic upland rice is kind of rice plants which generally favored by farmers because of its good taste, strong scent and higher selling values than non-aromatic ones. One of aromatic rice variety is well adaptable in dry land of East Nusa Tenggara, especially in several place at Southwest Sumba is Pare Wangi. The main development area of this rice variety still limited on its origin and not yet well develop on the other region, neither in Southwest Sumba nor East Nusa Tenggara in general. Facts on the field shows that efforts to develop Pare Wangi variety is not easy to do, because of this variety aroma power proved to be extremely varied in different planting sites. Consumer preference for quality aroma affect the aromatic rice development strategy that not only concern to productivity, but also the aroma quality. Therefore, it’s necessary to obtain a set of cultivation technology that can overcome the problem of aroma variation due to diversity of environmental condition.