Modeling salinity effect on rice growth and grain yield with ORYZA v3 and APSIM-Oryza

•ORYZA v3 and APSIM-Oryza models were improved to account for salinity effects on rice production.•Variability of soil salinity was represented by a simple linear relationship between salt concentration and electrical conductivity.•The derived salinity parameters captured response differences between tolerant (BRRI Dhan47) and non-tolerant variety (IR64).•An increase in salinity parameters of 5 % above the value for IR64 would result in a 3 % increase in simulated yield.