(Bloomberg) -- Floods that have submerged parts of Nigeria at the onset of the harvest season have destroyed crops that would have fed 8.5 million people for six months, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimated.

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Farmers in Africa’s most populous nation were expecting a bumper harvest this year but land planted with groundnuts, vegetables and rice has been inundated, the organization said in a response to questions on Wednesday. Livestock ranging from chickens to cattle have drowned.

The floods, which stretch from Guinea on Africa’s west coast to the Central African Republic more than 2,000 miles to the east, have deepened a food crisis across a region where 55 million people were already going hungry because of insecurity and adverse weather.

The heavy rains “are exacerbating the already deteriorating food security situation in the country,” FAO said. “Quantifying the exact loss has not yet been possible due to the gravity of the disaster.”

The organization estimated that about 856,000 tons of crops have been lost based on an average yield of 1.5 tons of food grown per hectare on the waterlogged land.

Almost half of Nigeria’s more than 200 million people live in extreme poverty, according to government estimates, and food prices are already rising at an annual rate of 37.5%.

FAO said the floods have also ruptured enclosures at markets, allowing animals to escape, and have destroyed storage units with fodder and machinery.

Eleven states along the Benue River are also at imminent risk of further flooding due to the discharge of water from the swollen Lagdo Dam in neighboring Cameroon, the organization said.

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--With assistance from Julia Janicki.

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