This study examines the effect of women’s adaptive strategies on poverty reduction in rural communities of Cross River State, Nigeria. A mixed-methods cross-sectional survey design was adopted, with primary data collected from a stratified proportional sample of

400 respondents selected from a population of 991,683 rural women in the Southern Senatorial District of Cross River State, including those engaged in savings cooperatives, petty trading, food processing, and vocational enterprises. Income-based saving schemes, petty trading activities, food processing, and vocational skills acquisition were specified as independent variables, while asset ownership, income level, food security, and employment opportunities served as dependent variables. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 through descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. The findings reveal that income-based saving schemes (r = .965, p = .035) and vocational skills acquisition (r = .978, p = .022) exert significant positive relationships with asset ownership and employment opportunities, respectively. Conversely, petty trading activities (r = .787, p = .213) and food processing (r = .901, p = .0899) show no statistically significant influence on income level and food security, respectively. The study concludes that women’s favorable engagement in specific adaptive strategies, particularly savings and vocational training, substantially enhances household resilience and economic empowerment in rural Cross River communities. It recommends the strengthening of cooperative savings mechanisms, provision of capital for petty traders, improvement of food processing infrastructure, and alignment of vocational training with local market needs to support sustainable poverty reduction.

Keywords: Women’s Adaptive Strategies, Poverty Reduction, Income-Based Saving Schemes, Petty Trading, Food Processing, Vocational Skills Acquisition, Cross River State.