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Highlights • 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., Development and testing of reliable tools for simulating rice production in salt-affected areas are presented in this paper. New functions were implemented in existing crop models ORYZA v3 and the cropping systems modelling framework APSIM. Field experiments covering two years, two different sites, and three varieties were used to validate both improved models. We used the salt balance module in the systems model APSIM to simulate the observed daily soil salinity with acceptable accuracy (RMSEn