The government said on Wednesday the setting up of special economic zones would not impact agriculture production in the country as the land needed for them is just a small fraction of the total cultivable land.

"In the 234 SEZs, given formal approvals, the total land acquired is 33,807 hectares. This extent of land would not hamper the agriculture production as the total land under cultivation in the country is over 100 million hectares," Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh told Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question. 

Of the total land, he said, needed for the SEZs, with formal approval around 17,800 hectares was already with state government agencies while the remaining land has been acquired by private developers.

Ramesh also highlighted the innovative means of land acquisition adopted by Mahindra World City in Rajasthan. ".. over 2,000 acres of land is being acquired for the SEZ that has received in-principle approval and farmers are being given 25 per cent of the developed land in lieu of cash compensation," he said.

In reply to another question, Ramesh said of the 234 SEZs granted formal approvals, 147 of them are for IT, ITeS and electronic hardware manufacturing while 92 were for manufacturing and five for services. Of the 162 proposals with in-principle clearance, 121 are for manufacturing sector.

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