Ministry of Agriculture Gives Aid for Animal Feed to victims of disaster in Lombok

INDUSTRY.co.id - Lombok - After the earthquake that struck North and East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and the surrounding area. The Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health (DG PKH) made NTB Earthquake Care Posts and provided assistance especially for farmers whose livestock needed assistance in the form of animal feed, medicines and animal health services.

To accelerate the acceptance of the assistance of the Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman instructed the PKH Directorate General to establish an Earthquake Care Action Team consisting of the Directorate General of PKH (Center and UPT), PKH Office of Bali Province, and District Office in charge of animal husbandry and animal health functions. The team has been on the field since its formation on August 5, 2018 until now.

"I am tasked with this special team to help earthquake victims, especially bringing equipment including food aid, vaccines, medicines and other health and technical services so that residents' livestock will remain safe and healthy," Amran said in Jakarta, Thursday (8/8). 2018)

Furthermore PKH Director General, I Ketut Diarmita said that this assistance would be distributed to livestock groups affected by the earthquake disaster. After an in-depth identification, it was found that the area that experienced the most serious impact was Kab. North Lombok and Kab. East Lombok. But until now there have been no reports of livestock deaths.

"We are very concerned about the calamity that befell our brother on the island of Lombok, let alone this NTB is one of the centers of production of beef cattle (livestock barns) contributing to national needs," said Director General of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture, I Ketut Diarmita when handing over aid directly at the Earthquake Care PKH Task Force Command Center located at the BPTP NTB office.

"Assistance will be given to farmers in the two districts because when they evacuate they are usually panicked and not optimal for fodder, hopefully this assistance can be distributed well and is useful for farmers," he said.

I Ketut Diarmita stated that the affected areas in North Lombok Regency (KLU) were in 4 Sub-districts, namely: Tanjung, Pemenang, Gangga, Kahyangan, while in East Lombok Regency were in 3 Sub-districts, namely Sembalun, Sambelia and Pringgabaya.
There are 9 Livestock Farmers Groups (KTT) in North Lombok Regency which were affected by the earthquake, including: (1). Sri Datu Summit with 295 cows; (2). Mekar Sari Summit with 142 cows; (3). New Sadar + Pade Angen Summit with 50 cows; (4). Makmur Jaya Summit with 50 cows; (5). Pade Angen Summit with 300 animals; (6). Bina Karya summit number of animals is 300; (7). The Maju Sejahtera Summit has a total of 70 animals; (8). Tanjung Tilah summit with 50 animals; (9). The Telaga Gedong summit has 50 animals.

"The number of cattle at the North Lombok Summit is estimated at 1,307," said I Ketut Diarmita.

While in East Lombok there were reported 2 summit affected by the earthquake, namely: (1). Ama Imron summit in Karya Hamlet, Sajang Village, Sembalun District with 700 cattle as many as 40 farmers; and (2). Dasan Kembar Summit in Bilok Petung Hamlet, Sembalun District with 100 cattle and 25 owners. The number of cattle recorded in East Lombok was 800, resulting in a total of 2,107 cows affected by the earthquake in 2 districts.

"Whereas for other affected areas we will continue to keep data and identification," he added.

Currently the supply of food available at the PKH Peduli Gempa Caring Post is as much as 80 tons of concentrate and 125 tons of sugar cane shoots. To help refugee animals that have been recorded, the Ministry of Agriculture has provided 16 tons of concentrate feed aid and 4 tons of sugar cane shoots. Direct assistance was handed over by the Director General of PKH to the Head of the NTB Province Animal Husbandry and Animal Health Service to be distributed and submitted to the summit that had been recorded.

The Directorate General of PKH currently also has cooperated with the local government to prepare several points of safe livestock holding locations and help with the evacuation of livestock and others.

According to I Ketut Diarmita, the most severely affected locations were in North Lombok and East Lombok, where temporary livestock shelters were provided.

"The location of the cattle shelter that we have prepared is certainly safer for residents because there will be enough food and some medicines and vaccines if there are sick animals," he said.

I Ketut Diarmita hopes that the farmers who are in the location affected by the earthquake do not need to panic and immediately save their livestock where they have been provided to avoid losing due to running or due to theft.

"We prepare a temporary shelter, supply of food (forage and concentrates, medicines, water and health services, as well as other services provided by the officers", he concluded.

Currently the PKH Task Force Command Ministry of Agriculture for Earthquake Care has been registered and included in the list of National Assistance Post (Pospenas) which will report all results of daily livestock handling activities to BNPB Command Post which will then be reported to the Minister / Institution level