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Data from the 1986/87 and 1987/88 National Agricultural Sample Surveys (NASS) were analysed to estimate the use of animal traction for crop production in The Gambia. The national populations of draught animals were 26 000 oxen, 17 000 horses and 37 000 donkeys. These figures indicated a 320 and 350% increase in the horse and donkey populations resp. since the 1974 NASS. As the mortality rate of 35 and 31% for horses and donkeys resp. exceeded the corresponding foaling rate of 24 and 29%, the population increases in those 2 species must be a result of purchases by the farmers. Draught animals are more common on the north bank and in the east of the country. There are differences among regions of the country in the distribution of the 3 species, but 70% of all dabadas (a semi-autonomous work group within a larger family structure, which controls its own labour and has some control over …