The current research programme focusses on the key areas affecting the profitability of the industry. These can be divided into three, namely:

• Varieties and Chemical Ripening
• Irrigation
• Crop Nutrition

Varieties and Chemical Ripening

This is made up of two programmes:

• The Released Variety Programme aims to ascertain the optimum performance of imported cane varieties with respect to soil type and season of harvest. The new variety is bulked and compared with N25 and other industry's standards in replicated trials in sites representing the soils prevalent in the industry.
  
• The Chemical Ripening Programme aims to establish the best ripening practice for each variety whilst maximizing the sucrose content.

Irrigation Research
 
The climate in Swaziland is semi-arid and hence, only 20-25% of the crop water requirement is met by rainfall. 

The remainder of the crop water requirement is supplied through irrigation. Consequently, irrigation accounts for about 25% of the industry's production costs.

The need for efficient management of water resources has been highlighted by several years of drought, the gradual expansion of the industry and the likely introduction of new water laws.

Irrigation research is therefore, being tackled from two sides. First, research concentrating on the soil plant atmospheric continuum (SPAC) aspects. Projects in this area include research on crop water demand, irrigation scheduling including concepts of deficit and near-deficit irrigation, and crop model development and application (CANEGRO).

Second, research concentrating on the water supply side. In particular, this looks at issues of system efficiency, system evaluation, system design, and the economics of irrigation, touching on power utilisation.

Crop Nutrition

Research in this area is concentrated on fertiliser utilisation. The research programme looks at the optimum utilisation of the three major crop nutrients, Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Another area of work is fertigation using drip systems of irrigation.