CHENNAI: The worrisome trends in global hunger, exacerbated by high food prices, must be tackled with a multi-pronged strategy to increase small farm productivity and profitability, raise non-farm incomes and strengthen nutrition safety nets, M.S.Swaminathan, chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said. Outlining his strategies, Prof. Swaminathan said it was important to fill the gap between yield and income by enhancing small farm productivity and profitability. Creating greater opportunities for remunerative livelihoods in the non-farm sector and strengthening the nutrition safety nets on a life cycle basis was crucial to avoid crises in future. Food security, based on home-grown food, was crucial as it was also related to the livelihood security of more than 60 per cent of the population and contributed to the strengthening of national sovereignty, Prof. Swaminathan said. Achieving food security would also help to bridge the urban-rural technological, economic and gender divides. Speaking at the MSSRF on