*4.8. Phenotypic Evaluation under Field Condition*

We grew "YNU31-2-4" plants in paddy fields of the Crop Research Center, Niigata University, Japan (37◦51020.75"N 138◦57037.9"E), during May-September in 2018, to evaluate the major agro-morphological traits. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. We used "Kaijin" and "Yukinko-mai" as salt tolerant and high yielding check cultivars, respectively. Thirty-day-old seedlings were transplanted at a spacing of 20 cm × 15 cm. All agronomic practices were performed uniformly for all the genotypes following the local cultural practices. Four uniform looking plants of each genotype from the central row of each replication were selected to determine the phenotype. The major agronomic traits such as (1) flag leaf color, (2) flag leaf length (3) flag leaf width, (4) heading date, (5) plant height, (6) tiller number, (7) panicle number, (8) panicle length, (9) spikelet number, (10) grain number, (11) 1000-grain weight, (12) seed setting rate, (13) grain yield, and (14) above ground biomass were determined. Grain length, width, and thickness were determined with a rice grain grader (RGQI20A; Satake, Hiroshima, Japan).
