Like thousands of other poor farmers across central Java, the 65-year-old father of three has lost everything to the destructive power of nature.

His paddy field in Sanggrahan village, about 22 kilometres (14 miles) northwest of the fuming crater, is now dead and he does not know when he will be able to plant again.

In the meantime his family will have to depend on the charity of friends and relatives, and the meagre support of the state.

"My paddy was our only source of income but it's all gone," he told AFP as the volcano continued to spew ash and hot gas a week after its last deadly eruption.

"I'm waiting now for rain to soften the mud so I can salvage the paddy, otherwise it's the end."

Indonesia is the world's third biggest producer of rice after China and India, thanks in no small part to its rich volcanic soils and plentiful rainfall. Farmers around Merapi would normally expect three harvests a year.

But that natural richness sometimes extracts a high price. Vast tracts of countryside that usually glow a verdant green now wear a grey mask of ash and volcanic mud known as lahar.

In Banyudono village, rice farmer Pertimah was desperately trying to save what she could from her ruined crop. Relatives were helping to carefully separate the paddy from the heavy mud.

"I've tried to save as much as I can, but that's all I can do. I put everything in God's hands. It's part of his scheme," she said.

She had been five days away from harvest when the ash rained down last Friday, in the volcano's biggest eruption since the 1870s.

Mount Merapi -- the name means Mountain of Fire -- has killed 206 people since it began erupting late last month, and forced more than 380,000 people into emergency shelters.

The most active volcano in an archipelago studded with them, Merapi is also a sacred landmark in ancient Javanese tradition.

People like Sutikno and Pertimah think of it as a living thing, one which wakes and sleeps and, at times, bursts with intemperate anger.

"It's like someone who has a serious illness and there's no sign of a recovery," Sutikno said.

"It's almost impossible to predict. I've often thought that it would go back to sleep but it has come back to life again and again. It's never-ending misery for us, I'm so frustrated."

Pertimah said the failed harvest had cost her about 2,500 dollars, a fortune for poor farmers like her.

"All the money I invested here has gone. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't have any idea where can I find money to start over again."

The government has said it will replace all the livestock killed on the slopes of Merapi since October 26, but for arable farmers like Pertimah there have been no such guarantees.

"I hope Merapi stops erupting soon. Otherwise it's a pity for all the villagers here," she said.

Officials said that despite the devastation around Merapi, the eruptions would have almost no effect on Indonesia's total rice output.

earlier related report
Villagers trickle home as Indonesia volcano toll nears 250
Ngaglik, Indonesia (AFP) Nov 14, 2010 - Villagers forced to flee when Indonesia's most active volcano erupted in a series of killer blasts trickled back home Sunday even as rescuers dug out more bodies from mountains of ash.

Indonesian authorities said the area around Mount Merapi remained on "red alert" as it continued to shoot huge clouds of ash into the air following eruptions that have claimed the lives of almost 250 people.

But officials said they have reduced the danger zone around Merapi, one of dozens of active volcanoes on the archipelago that straddles major tectonic fault lines known as "ring of fire" between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Dozens of residents made their way back this weekend to Ngaglik, where a blanket of thick grey ash shrouded almost everything in sight -- homes, trees and roads, as well as rice and chilli fields.

The village lies about 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of the volcano's peak and is still within the danger zone, but residents say they have grown restless staying in safety shelters.

Nearly 400,000 people have fled their homes since Mount Merapi began erupting late last month, forcing them to live in cramped makeshift camps away from the disaster zone in central Java island.

"I couldn't stand staying at the shelter any longer. I want to go back to a normal life," said 32-year-old farmer Suharti, who spent eight days in a temporary camp.

"But it's hard now. My rice and chillies were all burnt by the searing volcanic ash. They're worth 6.5 million rupiah (730 dollars). Now, I have to find money so I can farm again," she told AFP.

Her roadside home has been turned into a "distribution post" by relief workers to give out food staples such as rice, eggs, sugar and oil to returning villagers.

Children played as residents queued patiently for rations.

"There's nothing to cook, all the crops were ruined," lamented Sugono, a farmer in his 40s.

Merapi, a sacred landmark in Javanese tradition whose name translates as "Mountain of Fire", began erupting in late October.

Disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho put the overall death toll at 242, saying rescuers were still hunting for bodies.

Heru Nugroho, a spokesman for Sarjito hospital in the nearby city of Yogyakarta, said that figure excluded eight bodies rescuers found in an ash-buried village Sunday.

Many of the dead were buried under fast-flowing torrents of boiling hot gas and rock that incinerated villages when the volcano exploded on November 5 in its biggest eruption in over a century.

Senior volcanologist Sukhyar said villages surrounding Mount Merapi remained on "highest red alert" but that the government had reduced the danger zone around the volcano, except on southern slopes still affected by heat clouds.

"The energy of Merapi has reduced significantly since November 8... We only detected one or two heatcloud emissions," he told a press conference in Yogyakarta.

"This is not a rash decision as we had carried out an evaluation based on our observations of the volcano," he added.

With the exclusion zone reduced, thousands are expected to leave the shelters but Sukhyar said they must "stay vigilant as the danger is not over yet".

"About 160 trucks are on standby to take the evacuees home. But let us clean up the volcanic ash from the areas first," he added.

Borobudur, a ninth-century Buddhist temple complex that is one of Indonesia's most visited sites and lie only 40 kilometres from Merapi, remained closed on Sunday along with the airport serving Yogyakarta.

Merapi killed around 1,300 people in 1930 but experts say the current eruptions are its biggest since 1872.

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