This paper tries to explain the influence of agricultural productivity on employment, income and welfare of open economies. Using an extension of Matsuyama (1992) model, the paper proves that does not exist necessarily an inverse relation between growth and agricultural productivity. Crucial to this result are the assumptions that the dynamic of the economy is not solely based on industrial productivity, but it relies also on agricultural productivity; and that there are spillovers among economies. Under this perspective Matsuyama's result is a particular case of this more general approach. On the other hand, specialization in agriculture does not lead inexorably to welfare losses either in the short or in the long run.
