Growth response of rice (Oryza sativa L.) plant towards magnetized seawater treatment

Climate change has impacted many sectors, especially ecology and agriculture which are related to water supply and quality. The amount of available fresh water on Earth has been less than 1, potential effects include drought, water quality impairment, and saltwater intrusion to coastal water supplies. An alternative to overcome the shortage of fresh water in the agricultural sector is to substitute freshwater with other sources of water, for example, seawater. Seawater availability is 97, but it cannot be used directly in the agricultural sector due to the high salinity of seawater. High salinity causes numerous disturbances to the growth of the plant. The ability of a magnetic device for seawater desalination can be used in this research to evaluate seawater potential for irrigation water. This research aims to analyze the growth response of rice plants 'IR 64' and 'Inpari 35' with magnetized seawater treatments. This experiment was conducted using a randomized design with three factorials, i.e., rice cultivars ('IR 64' and 'Inpari 35'), level of seawater salinity (0 and 10 dS m-1), and type of magnetized seawater (untreated and treated by magnetic treatment). The experiment result showed that magnetized seawater treatment decreased salinity level in seawater to minimize the negative impact of salinity on the growth of rice plants as indicated by increasing plant height, number of leaves, plant biomass, carotenoid, and chlorophyll content.