Calcutta, June 20: Over 93,000 hectares of farmland are under water in four districts, damaging around 1.8 million tonnes of foodgrain and vegetables and triggering fears of a further rise in food prices.

But the government hopes to make up for the loss in the two Midnapores, Howrah and Bankura from the rice bowl and some of the other districts that generally have a higher yield.

“Failure to do that may lead to even higher prices of food items. The rate of inflation has already burnt holes in our pockets and a further rise in food prices would be difficult for the people to bear,” food minister Paresh Adhikary said.

The floods in the four districts would mean a drop of about 12 per cent in foodgrain and vegetable production and “that translates into some 18 lakh tonnes”, an official said.

“If better quality of seeds and fertilisers are used in the districts not affected by the floods, the yield can be increased significantly there,” he added.

The government is pinning its hopes on Burdwan, Birbhum, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas and North and South Dinajpur.

An agriculture department official said “improved quality of fertilisers” were supplied to farmers to raise output after natural calamities. “If high-quality fertilisers are used at all times, the output will be higher but for a price. In the long term, the fertility of the land will be affected.”

Agriculture minister Naren De said: “According to a preliminary assessment, 70 per cent of the crops in the flood-hit districts could be damaged.”

Aman paddy cultivation has been hit on about 18,000 hectares of the 93,700 hectares under water.“This is the aman season and seeds had been sown over large tracts,” De said. But the flood will not impact the overall rice production of the state because “we do not depend much on Bankura and Howrah for it”.

De added that the government was also mulling distribution of subsidised “mini kits” containing good-quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides across the state.