PRAGUE, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- This year's drought has caused an estimated 11 to 12 billion Czech crowns (from 507 million to 553 million U.S. dollars) in damage to the Czech farmers, according to Czech Agriculture Minister Miroslav Toman.

Toman said on Saturday in Zlin that the compensation that the state is going to pay to the farmers should be between 2 and 3 billion Czech crowns (92 million to 138 million U.S. dollars), according to local media reports.

Toman said that the government is willing to compensate the farmers for what is most important, such as feed crops.

He said the drought obviously was reflected in the increase in food prices.