在中国，农民需要参加农村养老保险制度，每月缴纳一定数额的保险金，才能够在退休后获得养老金。但事实上，这样的制度也存在着一些问题。首先，搬迁到异地的农民无法享受退休金，只有每一次回到家乡才能够领取。其次，考虑到农民一直可以通过耕种土地维持生计，退休金的金额较低。只依赖退休金是完全无法维持生活的。杞农群体便面临着这两个问题所带来的严重困境。杞农以农民身份离开家乡时，也就意味着他们赖以生存的土地不再能够带来收入，只能够另寻经济来源。如果想要领取每个月的退休金，则必须通过交通工具回到家乡领取，途中还需要花费路费等等。在此情况下，微薄的退休金完全无法支撑该群体的生活，于是他们必须在宁夏寻找零工。较为年轻的农民可以去工地等等体力工作场所寻找工作，而较为老迈的农民，或者是跟随子女务工来的老农，在寻找工作时会困难很多。工厂，工地等等地方的体力工作并不接受老年群体，于是，他们只能来到枸杞种植田，成为杞农，做一些不那么需要体力的枸杞采摘工作。

In China, farmers need to participate in the rural pension insurance system and pay a certain amount of insurance fee every month before they can receive pensions after retirement. But in fact, there are also some severe issues with this system. First of all, farmers who have moved to other places cannot enjoy pensions and can only receive them every time they return to their hometown. Secondly, the amount of pension is lower than that other workers recieved considering that farmers have always been able to make a living by cultivating the land. In fact, it is completely unsustainable for farmers to live solely on the pension. Wolfberry farmers are facing serious difficulties caused by these two problems. When they leave their hometown as farmers, it means that the land they rely on for survival can no longer bring income, and they can only find other sources to make a living. If they want to receive their monthly pensions, farmers must   return to their hometowns to collect them, and  will therefore creat extra travel expenses. Under this circumstance, the meager pension is completely unable to support the life of this group, so wolfberry farmer must find extra jobs in Ningxia. Younger people can go to construction sites and other manual work places to find jobs, while the older ones, or those who follow their children to find a job here, will have a lot more difficulty finding jobs. Physical jobs in factories, construction sites and other places do not accept the elderly, so they can only come to the wolfberry planting fields, become wolfberry farmers, and do some wolfberry picking work that does not require physical strength.