The new pension plan is "risk-free", as farmers reclaim the money they invested seven to eight years after they begin to receive the pension, said Zhu Xinping, director of Rudong's Pension Administration Center.

"After they get back their investment, they are earning money as long as they live," he said. "If they die before getting what they have paid in, their children inherit the remaining money in their personal pension account."

Rudong statistics show farmers are enthusiastic about the pension plan, as the fee paid by farmers in 2008 added up, on average, to the past 16 years income.

But there is still a long way to go to put the scheme into place fully.

"It's a great plan and we want more farmers to know about its benefits, but it takes time for them to accept new things," said Guan Chunlin, head of the Fengqiao Village.

He said only 550 out of the 3,385 farmers in Fengqiao Village had joined the program.

Most of the local villagers did not sign up for the program because they could not afford it.

"Right now, I have to pay for my son's tuition fees. I'll join when I have the money," one farmer said.

"I'm all alone, no children, no spouse. I wonder where would the money go if I pass away," another farmer said.

The average annual income of Fengqiao farmers was 6,200 yuan in 2008. The 9,300-yuan pension fee is a lot of money but 132 yuan a month is more than sufficient for pensioners to live on.

"The newly announced plan is another major effort by the Chinese government to promote the well-being of rural citizens and to reduce urban-rural disparities," Albert Park, an Oxford University economics professor, a specialist on China's aging society, told Xinhua in an email.

But, Park said, the investment of farmer's contributions to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the program and equitable benefits for the elderly living in different parts of the country were major concerns.

"Although there will be many challenges in financing and managing such a large-scale program, especially as the population continues to grow older, the new program reflects the government's recognition of the difficulties that will increasingly be faced by China's rural elderly," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2009)