IntroductionIn the South African sugar industry approximately 30% of thetotal annual sugarcane crop is produced in the northern irrigatedareas of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga which represents 16% ofthe total area under sugarcane. There is continued pressure on thelimited water resources available to the South African sugar indus-try. In addition, water use for South African agriculture is subject toincreasing scrutiny from policy makers and environmentalists, asthe industry has to demonstrate that water is used efficiently andeffectively. The term water use efficiency (WUE) is widely acceptedas measure of overall effectiveness of water use and can be definedas the fresh cane yield produced per unit of total crop water use(evapotranspiration). Of concern is the very low WUE values thatare currently achieved in the irrigated regions of the industry. Pre-vious research has indicated that WUE’s of 12 to 18 kg m−3arepossible as compared to 6 kg m−3, which was the average WUE inthe Mpumalanga province of South Africa reported by Olivier andSingels (2003, 2004). In a more recent study by Jarmain et al. (2014)it was found through remote sensing techniques, that WUE in thesame area ranged from 3 to 14 kg m−3, with an average of about8 kg m−3.Agronomic practices such as the use of a crop residue layer,reduced row spacing, growing suitable varieties and accurateirrigation scheduling could potentially be applied to increaseWUE by saving water and/or increasing yield (Olivier et al.,2009).