This work was supported by grants from the Center for Advanced Studies for Agriculture and Food, Institute for Advanced Studies, Kasetsart University under the Higher Education Research Promotion and National Research University Project of Thailand, Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand. The first author is grateful to Assist. Prof. Suriyan Tunkijjanukij, Director of CASAF, and Dr. Buncha Chinnasri, head of Plant Breeding and New Life Science Application Center 1 at Kasetsart University, for supporting this project. The work was also partially supported by Ri-BIOTEC (P-11-0101) from the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), Thailand. We are grateful to Drs. Kanyawim Kirtikara and Lily Eurwilaichitr for their interest, support and helpful comments on both the research proposal and final report. Assoc. Prof. Apisit Eiumnoh and Wanchern Potacharoen were helpful in contacting the Eastern Sugar \& Cane Co., Ltd. sugar factory, and Dr. Suriyant Boonnakka and Thawat Tinnangwattana are acknowledged for allowing us to collect our samples there. We gratefully thank Kitti Choonhawong, the President of the Thai Society of Sugar Cane Technologists, for support and for coordinating sample collections from several agricultural manufacturers. The first author would also like to thank Dr. Verawat Champreda for suggesting the Taguchi design and allowing us to use facilities at the BIOTEC enzyme technology laboratory. We are also grateful to Dr. Satinee Suetrong for providing us with the Aspergillus flavus KNS3C4 and KNS4C30 isolates and with the A. tamarii KNS1C97 isolates. We would like to thank Thitiya Boonpratuang for the lignolytic whiterot fungi Schizophyllum commune THP443, Polyporus arcularius THP266, Microporus affinis THP131 and Lenzites elegans THP229. We would like to thank Jularut Srichaitong for technical assistance on the fungal compatibility test. Finally, the two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their critical comments.