How do you say "farm" - a place to grow crops?

Question

Some options that I've heard include farmo, farmejo, farmbieno, and bieno. Looking at the definitions of these words, none seems to fit. Is "farm" an international concept? How do you express this idea in Esperanto?

To clarify the question above, the reason I'm asking this is that somebody recently asked this question on another site. I responded that in nearly two decades of speaking Esperanto, I have not found a good answer to this question. This past summer at NASK, I over heard another fluent speaker (one of the teachers) giving a similar answer.

Solutions with farm- are not suitable because, as has been pointed out in the one answer so far, it suggests the land was rented out for cultivation, which is not the idea I'm trying to express.

Similarly bieno doesn't seem to work because the primary meaning has to do with a piece of land and who owns it - therefore is more similar to "estate". From PIV:

• Kampara posedaĵo, kun la agroj, domoj ktp dependantaj de ĝi: reĝa, nobela bieno; alodbieno, feŭdbieno, farmobieno; retiriĝi sur sian bienon.

Also note that kampara bieno is redundant by this definition.

Looking at bieno in actual use, it seems overwhelmingly that it refers to a country estate and only occasionally to what could be seen as a farm - which is why I asked whether "farm" is an international concept. (I note that German Hof seems wider in sense - which begs the question - how do you say Bauer in Esperanto?)

It seems that a solution with agro would be possible, but people don't seem to use this word that way.

I'm looking for a word (or words) which could be used in the following contexts:

• My father was a farmer.
• Visitors to Facila Vento should know that it's a farm and that they will be expected to do farm work.
• We saw a lot of abandoned farms on our drive.
• This used to be a farm but now it's our country estate.
• We built this farm on a former lord's estate.
• This used to be a working farm, and it will be again.
• Old MacDonald had a farm, eieio

Answer 1

Just like the farmers in Westerns didn’t own their land, but farmed (rented) it, the verb farmi in Esperanto means the same thing: Lue preni laŭ kontrakto por difinita tempo teron, bienon, por ĝin kulturi kaj uzi je sia propra risko kaj profito.

Bieno is a perfect general word. Farmbieno implies that the agrikulturisto doesn't own it.

Other translations for "farm": kampara bieno, agrara bieno, agrikultura bieno ...

Answer 2

It is really annoying not to have a precise and short word for "farm". But checking in ReVo, I read the following:

farmo

Farma prenado: hereda farmoZ; farmdomo.

Rim.: En kelkaj kunmetaĵoj de „farmo“, kiel estas ĉe „farmbieno“ kaj „farmdomo“, la ideo pri luado povas malaperi kaj restas nur la ideo pri agrokultura entrepreno.

Pushing this remarque a bit further, I am tempted to propose that farmo could follow the same evolution as the corresponding words in English and French, and lose its sytematic lue aspect. The original meaning would remain in historical contexts (and could be made clear by using lufarmo).

Searching in articles published in Monato and Le Monde diplomatique en Esperanto, I got the impression that farmo is often used in this nelue meaning.

But I am reluctant. Like probably most of us, I am not comfortable with the idea of altering the meaning of words which are defined in the Vortaro Oficiala.

Answer 3

I'm late on this thread, but…

What I've understand, quite likely erroneously, is that bieno is a general term for an agricultural venture, usually run by a single family, and the buildings they own. The defining thing is, that they cultivate fields, forests and/or crow animals for milk, meat etc. This means, that a rural house and the household living in it, but not involved in agriculture (say, running a car repair shop or working remotely for software company), is not bieno.

The cultivated fields and forests can be property of the family, rented or as in most cases in my location are a mixture of owned and rented.

I associate the English word "farm" foremost with the USA. Depending on the context it means either a farm like in a western movie (or "Little House on the Prairie") or a contemporary phenomenon with several square kilometres of fields, quite often an agricultural venture with a single or very few cereals, hardly ever forests.

I agree with Sambuko. I associate neither the English word "farm" nor the Esperanto word farmo (seeing it only as a direct translation from English) with renting. This means, that we have two words, bieno and farmo, with more or less the same meaning. While perhaps personally prefering farmo because of I know it from English (bieno raises no association to me), I can live with both.