Along with the decreasing activity of Merapi, the dynamics of the emergency response also began to decline. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency has established that emergency response period was extended to 9 December 2010. Some IDPs have started to return to their respective areas, especially those from regions that have been declared safe and did not experience severe damage due to the eruption on 26 October and 4 November 2010. Meanwhile, some IDPs were still staying in the evacuation camps because of the status and condition of their respective areas. In the period of cooling down, the emergency response activities need to be collaborated with the activities towards rehabilitation and reconstruction. Both need to be conducted in parallel.
UGM Community Service and Nutrition Section (NMT) Team has long been involved in the livestock emergency response. After the decreasing activity of Merapi, the team changed the attentive movement of livestock management from emergency response to attentive rensponse.
Bambang Suwignyo, Chairman of the UGM NMT Emergency Response Team, said the attentive response conducted in form of the production of complete feed or known as the livestock “burger" based on rice straw for the livestock of Merapi disaster victims who are still in disaster prone areas. "The selection of complete feed is because this type is more practical, its palatability is already tested, it has good nutrition and affordable," he explained on Tuesday (30/11), on the campus of UGM.
The lecturer of Faculty of Animal Science said that the complete animal feed is based on the rice straw. Each package of 2 tons complete feed consists of material in the form of rice straw, molasses, and pollard at a cost of 2.5 million rupiah or Rp1,250/kg.
In the attentive response activities, the team provides complete fodder based on the rice straw in disaster areas. The production center will be held at the evacuation barracks of livestock. "In the early days of emergency response, the making of "burger" was performed at the UGM Faculty of Animal Science to be distributed to the location of livestock afterward. At present the making of "burgers" is conducted directly in the locations of cattle sheds, involving farmers," he explained.
Bambang disclosed, by involving farmers in the manufacture of "burger", it is expected to be a means for knowledge sharing to the farmers, thus it can be made independently in the future. In addition, the activities is expected to break the boredom of farmers in the evacuation camps. "Farmers who are involved in the process of burgers making will also get money," said Bambang.