Monrovia, March 6 -- Fatu Moore pounds rocks hour after hour in this quarry on the outskirts of the capital. Her weathered hands tell a story of survival. For 35 years she has crushed rocks here under the hot sun, transforming boulders into gravel for income to feed her seven children.

But lately customer numbers have dropped, and this backbreaking doesn't put enough food on the table.

"Sometimes when they buy one pickup load of rocks, it will take two to three weeks before another customer comes," said the 42-year-old Madam Moore whose husband died in a motorcycle accident six years ago. "Before that time, what will we be eating?"

Madam Moore represents a growing crisis in Liberia. In recent years climate change and global economic s...