Udupi: Vishwapriya Tirtha Swami of Admar Mutt and Ishapriya Tirtha Swami, junior seer of the mutt, launched a project to cultivate plantain leaves at Chara village near Hebri in Udupi district on Friday.

This launch was held on the day the Admar Mutt performed the Baale Muhurta, the first of the preliminaries before the next Paryaya, here.

Earlier, speaking to mediapersons here, Ishapriya Tirtha Swami said that the farmers from Chara village had decided to cultivate plantain leaves on 10 acres of land at Chara village near Hebri and supply them to the Admar Mutt during its Paryaya, which will begin on January 18, 2020.

The farmers would be cultivating the plantain leaves, which were essential during the two year Paryaya period (2020-22).

About 4,000 to 5,000 plantain leaves were required for the Paryaya Mutt daily.

This would also ensure that the farmers of the region would develop closer contacts with the Admar Mutt, he said.

To a query, the seer said that there were also plans to cultivate organic vegetables and this too could be used during the two-year period. But this was still in the planning stage, Ishapriya Tirtha said.

Mithun Shetty, farmer and secretary of Vivekananda Yuva Vedike, which is coordinating with farmers for cultivation of plantain leaves in Chara, said that the plantain saplings would take about nine months to grow and the plantain leaves would be ready for supply close to the next Paryaya period.