PESHAWAR, Jan 28: Wild olive plants grafted by the Pakistan Army in five agencies of Fata in 2003 have shown signs of survival and will hopefully start bearing fruit in a couple of years.

Troops had grafted around 25,000 wild olive plants in Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan agencies in July and August. The survival rate of these trees has been found encouraging and these will start bearing fruit within two years, said a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations on Wednesday.

Wild olive plants grow in millions in Fata, but these plants have little commercial value and are mainly used as timber and fire-wood. By growing fruit-bearing olive and converting wild olive into improved varieties, an estimated Rs111 billion could be earned in foreign exchange through export of olive oil, the press release said. This could also help alleviate poverty and oil shortage in the NWFP and Fata on a sustainable basis and create around 500,000 jobs.

Keeping this huge potential in view, the Pakistan Army in collaboration with the Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board and the agriculture department devised a plan to promote olive cultivation and grafting. It then converted wild olive plants into fruit bearing species with the help of the community and tribesmen.