Ozone impact to paddy rice production: Comparison between two industrial areas in Malaysia

Ozone concentration in the atmosphere could have an adverse impact to the agricultural industry of the nation. It has been identified as one of the factor that could threaten food crop production such as paddy. In Europe, the AOT40 index (accumulated exposure over a threshold of Xppb) is used to study the ozone effects in the reduction of agricultural and vegetation production. However, this type of index is not yet to be found in Malaysia. Hence, this index has been adapted and customized according to Malaysia’s suitability and all the original data has been used in this study. In Malaysia, paddy rice is grown in almost every state even though there are differences in the type of land use. Hence, two industrial area; Perak and Negeri Sembilan have been selected in order to study the reduction in crop yield in Malaysian industrial area. This research has found that industries have significantly reduced paddy rice production in Malaysia. Perak recorded the highest decline with 18.3% while Negeri Sembilan recorded 12.26%. Additionally, this study has also found that the paddy yield is lower during the rainy season as compared to the dry season; as low temperature increases the stomatal conductance and the ozone uptake in paddy’s stoma and adversely affects paddy rice production.