Why farms and agribusinesses use e-signatures
Agriculture runs on agreements between people who are rarely in the same place. A landowner and a tenant farmer agree a lease. A grower agrees to supply a buyer, a processor or a co-operative at a set price. An input dealer extends terms on seed and fertiliser. A contractor hires out a harvester for a fortnight. Seasonal workers are taken on for the harvest. Much of it is agreed in a field or a yard, and much of it is still recorded on paper that lives in a truck cab or a kitchen drawer.
Timing matters too. A supply agreement needs to be signed before the crop goes in; an equipment hire agreement before the machine leaves the yard; a worker’s contract before their first day. SignPe lets you do that from a phone. The SignPe app for iOS and Android can scan a paper form, send it for signature, or hand the device over for someone to sign in person, and the web app at app.signpe.com covers the office side. One account works across every device, and documents sync between them.
Land leases and farm tenancy agreements
Land leases and grazing or cropping agreements tie down the land, the term, the rent and who is responsible for what. Landowners are often not local, and family-owned land can have several owners who all need to sign.
- Every owner on one document. Add each landowner and the tenant as signers — there is no limit on signers per document — so you are not stitching signatures together from separate copies.
- Sign in the right order. Use Set signer order so the tenant signs first and the owners countersign; the next signer is emailed automatically when it is their turn.
- Mark the land on the plan. Shape fields — Circle, Square, Rounded, Star, Pentagon or Hexagon — and Text fields let you highlight and label the fields or parcels covered by the lease. See add text and shapes.
- Initials on key pages. Place Initials on the pages with rent, term and repair obligations, and Checkmark fields beside conditions to accept.
Some land leases have to be registered or meet other formalities depending on their length and where the land is. Check with your adviser before relying on e-signature for those — see the compliance section below.
Crop purchase and supply agreements
Forward contracts, contract-farming agreements and supply agreements with processors, traders, exporters and co-operatives fix the price, quantity, quality standard and delivery window. Buyers often deal with dozens or hundreds of growers, which makes chasing paper contracts slow and error-prone.
- Growers sign as guests. Farmers without a SignPe account sign in their browser after accepting an electronic-records consent screen — see sign without an account.
- Sign at a collection centre or field visit. Field officers can use In person Signing so a grower signs on the officer’s phone or tablet during a visit.
- Terms written on the page. Use Text fields for quantity, grade and delivery dates, in font sizes from 12 to 36, and a Date field for the signing date.
- See who is still outstanding. The Waiting for Others filter shows every agreement still waiting on a grower, and Remind emails them with one click.
Aadhaar eSign in India
For growers, farmer producer organisations and buyers in India, Aadhaar eSign adds OTP verification through eMudhra and a PKI-signed PDF with a SHA-256 document hash and an evidence certificate, for agreements where stronger signer identity matters.
Input supply and equipment hire agreements
Seed, fertiliser and crop-protection suppliers, machinery dealers and agricultural contractors all have terms to sign: credit agreements, equipment hire and rental contracts, contract harvesting or spraying agreements, and delivery acknowledgements. These are usually signed in a yard or at a dealer’s counter.
- Scan the paper copy. If a dealer hands you a paper agreement, the SignPe app’s Scan option turns it into a PDF with automatic edge detection, ready to sign.
- Photos into one PDF. Pick several photos of a multi-page form and SignPe combines them into a single PDF automatically — see import from photos and cloud.
- Record the condition of a machine. Use Text fields for hours, serial numbers and condition notes on a hire agreement before the machine leaves the yard.
- Company details and stamps. Add Company and Designation fields, and apply your company stamp from your saved library where the contract carries one.
Contracts you already keep in the cloud can be imported directly from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box. For more on supplier paperwork, read our guide to signing vendor agreements online.
Seasonal and farm worker agreements
Harvest and packing seasons bring a rush of new workers, each of whom needs a contract, a safety briefing acknowledgement and sometimes accommodation terms signed before they start. Doing that on paper in a packhouse or on the first morning of picking is slow, and the forms are hard to keep track of afterwards.
- In person Signing on a tablet. Open the agreement, hand the tablet to the worker and capture their signature on the screen. In the mobile app the option is In-Person Signing.
- A pen that works with a finger. The drawing pad is speed-sensitive — slower strokes come out thicker and stroke ends taper — so a finger signature looks natural rather than jagged. See signature pen and brushes.
- Or sign before arrival. Workers with an email address can sign from a Review & Sign Document link on their own phone before the season starts.
- Prepared in advance. Set up a briefing document and save it as a draft — drafts do not use a document credit — then open it from the Drafts folder when the crew arrives.
Each signature is recorded with its date and time, and the audit trail PDF shows when every signer signed.
A typical agricultural signing workflow
Capture the document
Upload the lease or contract in the office, import it from the cloud, or scan a paper agreement in the field with the SignPe app.
Place the fields
Add Signature, Initials, Date, Text and Shape fields, and assign each one to the landowner, grower, buyer or worker.
Choose how it is signed
Use Set signer order to send it remotely, or In person Signing to collect signatures on your device during a visit.
Track progress
Follow the status in the Activity timeline on the web or the Document History page on mobile, and use Remind if someone stalls.
Keep the record
When everyone has signed, all parties receive the signed copy. Download the audit trail PDF for your records.
Compliance considerations for agricultural documents
Electronic signatures are recognised for most commercial contracts under laws such as the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s Information Technology Act 2000. Supply agreements, equipment hire contracts and worker agreements are commonly signed electronically. Most e-signature laws carve out certain documents, commonly some property deeds and transfers, and long land leases may need registration, stamp duty or witnessing under local rules. Government scheme forms, subsidy applications and crop insurance can have their own requirements too. Confirm those with your legal adviser; the legality guide covers India in detail.
- An audit trail per document. The audit trail PDF shows the document ID, sent and completed dates, and each signer’s emailed, viewed and signed times.
- Only participants can open a document. Prices and terms are not visible to anyone outside the document.
- Encryption in transit and at rest. See eSignature security for how documents are protected.
- Declines are recorded. If a grower chooses Decline to sign?, you are notified straight away and the event is logged in the document’s history.
A signed worker acknowledgement records that the worker signed; it is not a substitute for the training, supervision or records that employment and safety rules require.
How to get a supply agreement signed during a farm visit
Open the agreement on your phone
Upload the supply agreement in the SignPe app, import it from your cloud storage, or scan the paper copy.
Choose In-Person Signing
Select In-Person Signing as the signing mode.
Place the fields
Add a Signature, Full Name and Date field for the grower, and Text fields for quantity and delivery dates.
Hand the phone over
The grower reads the agreement and signs on the screen with their finger.
Finish and file
Once everyone has signed, the completed PDF and its audit trail are saved to your account.
