Societies depend on agricultural innovation processes for food security on local, regionalrnand global scales. Crop genetic resources, embodied in the see d planted by farmers, arernintegral components of these processes. Ethiopia has immense wealth of crop geneticrnresources, which is part of its rich biological diversity. The country's genetic resourcesrnare, however, subject to serious erosion and irreversible losses due to policy, institutional,rnand market failures. It is , thus, both a challenge and an opportunity for Ethiopia to designrnconservation policies that enable its agriculture-based economy to make the best use ofrnits crop diversity.rnThe purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges byrnproviding an insight into Ethiopian fanners' crop variety attribute preferences and byrnidentifying the most important farm household contextual factors that condition theirrnvariety attribute preferences. The study argues that farmers are maximizing theirrnhousehold utility by consuming their preferred crop variety attributes not by directlyrnconsuming the varieties that embed those preferred attributes. Undertaking on-farmrnconservation ventures, therefore, requires understanding farmers ' variety attributernpreferences and this study contributes to that effect. The current study also underscoresrnthe importance of eliciting farmers' variety attribute preferences in the areas of croprnbreeding priority setting and targeted adoption of improved varieties.rnThe study applies the choice experiment (CE) method to estimate the private utilityrnfarmers derive from four traits of sorghum and teff varieties (the two major crops in therncountry) including sale price (marketability of the variety), productivity, environmentalrnadaptability (resistance to drought and frost occurrences), and yield stability of thernvariety despite occurrences of disease and pest problems. Our empirical analysis ofrnfarmers' preferences for these attributes is based on primary data collected from 131 teffrnand sorghum growing farmers in North Wollo zone. The CE approach employed in thisrnstudy involved asking farmers to make a hypothetical choice between different croprnvarieties offered in a choice set and differentiated by the level s the above attributes take.rnFindings demonstrate variation in the private values farmers attach to crop varieties andrntheir attributes across farmers and the two crops considered in this study. Farmrnhouseholds attach the highest private value to environmental adaptability trait of bothrnsorghum and leff crops; this is followed by yield stability and productivity attributes ofrnthe same crops. The results of the empirical analysis also demonstrate that farmers arernslightly more risk averse towards a non-adaptable variety of teff than towards a sorghumrnvariety withal similar trait. The results reveal that difference s between farm households,rnin terms of household characteristics, their endowments and constraints, and the level ofrndevelopment integration (in the areas of basic infrastructure and agricultural extension)rnaffect farmers' private valuation of crop variety traits . tiff and sorghum varieties that arernresistant to drought and frost occurrences are valued most highly by larger and poorerrnfarm household s residing far away from basic infrastructures and less so by mediumrnsized, and moderately experienced farm households. Our results al so show that therndemand for yield stability trait in sorghum varieties is most noticeable in richerrnhousehold s living in easily accessible areas, whereas larger and poorer households derivernthe highest positive utility from stable yielding teff varieties. Relatively richer farmrnhousehold s who have been participating in the agricultural extension package and whornhave at least one member working off-farm derive the highest positive utility from mo rernproductive sorghum varieties. On the other hand, poorer farm households w ho do notrnparticipate in the extension package and reside in less accessible areas derive the highestrnpositive utility from more productive leff varieties. Marketable sorghum varieties i. e.,rnthose that fetch the highest price for the farm family, are valued most highly by ma lernheaded farm households. Farm households with accumulated wealth in the form of higherrntotal livestock value derive the highest private utility from marketable teff varieties.rnThe above empirical results have implications not only for on-fann conservation but alsornfor improved variety adoption and breeding priority setting in Ethiopia. For farmingrnsystems operated by relatively rich farm house holds, and for those found in easilyrnaccessible areas, conservation should be target to environmentally adaptable varieties ofrnboth teff and sorghum crops. To target and address variety demand for income shockrnvulnerable and segmented farmers, the priority variety attributes are environmentalrnadaptability, yield stability, and to a lesser extent the productivity traits of leff andrnsorghum varieties. Breeding should also target to satisfy demands of different farmrnhousehold types classified by their resource endowments, preferences and constraints.rnThe research priority setting should, therefore , also ask 'breeding for whom?' not justrnonly' breeding/or which environment?', as it is mostly the case.