YARPAH TOWN, April 3 -- Betty Miller is a single mother of six children aged six to 13. She is also a farmer, one of many here have struggled to feed and educate their children in the past four years because of poor harvests.

Miller says her three oldest children dropped out of school because she could not pay the fees. The three others are in school, from kindergarten to grade three.

"I was used to make farm to send the children to school, but now when I make the farm no good thing can't come out," says Miller, 52, who grows bitter ball and other crops. Miller says she began selling prepared food at the local market here for extra money, but there was still not enough.

Subsistence farming is the most prevalent occupation in Liberia w...