*3.5. Quality Assessment*

The quality of japonica rice was observed for two study years in 2018 and 2019 and is presented in Table 6. The observed data demonstrated that the chalkiness degree and brown rice percentage were higher in Qiqihar than Harbin among all cultivars during both study years as given in Table 5. At Harbin, higher protein contents were observed in Longjing-21 during both study years 2018 and 2019 with values of 9.34% and 9.15%, respectively, whereas at Qiqihar, Longjing-21 had the highest protein contents in 2018, but in 2019 they were high in Suijing-18 with a value of 7.70% (Table 6). Amylose contents were highest in Longdao-18 during both study seasons at Harbin, but at Qiqihar, a different trend was observed, as in 2018, they were the highest in Longdao-18, but in 2019, Longdao-21 had comparatively high amylose contents. The length to width ratio of japonica rice grains among all cultivars was also higher at Harbin with very little difference. Overall, the mean fine rice percentages were advanced during both seasons at Harbin than Qiqihar. Generally, it can be concluded that the quality of japonica rice was better at Harbin relative to Qiqihar, but not with big differences as shown in Table 6. Moreover, the variation in time of phenological phases during the three study years at Harbin and Qiqihar is presented in Table 7.
