Agrobiodiversity is a crucial environmental resource. Much of the agrobiodiversity
remaining in situ today is found on the semi-subsistence farms of poorer countries and the
small-scale farms or home gardens of more industrialised nations. The traditional farms of
Hungary are an example. Labelled ‘‘home gardens’’ as a reflection of their institutional
identity during the collectivisation period, they are micro-agroecosystems that provide
important functions such as food security and diet quality. This paper applies the choice
experiment method to estimate the private benefits farmers derive from four components of
the agrobiodiversity found in Hungarian home gardens: richness of crop varieties and fruit
trees; crop landraces; integrated crop and livestock production; and soil micro-organism
diversity. The analysis is based on primary data collected in three environmentally sensitive
areas where pilot agri-environmental programmes have been initiated as part of the Hungarian
National Rural Development Plan. Findings demonstrate variation in the private
values of home gardens and their attributes across households and regions, contributing to
understanding the potential role of home gardens in these agri-environmental schemes. This
study has implications for sustaining agrobiodiversity in transitional economies.