The U.N. food agency says cyclone-battered Myanmar faces prolonged food shortages if farmers are not able to return to their fields in the next 90 days.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization says Myanmar’s Ministry of Agriculture estimates that 3.95 million acres of rice paddies were damaged by the May 3 cyclone. The storm killed tens of thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands of farmers off their flood-ravaged land.

FAO representative Leon Gouws told The Associated Press that if farmers cannot go back to their paddies, “it will prolong the emergency and keep the people dependent on food aid.”