The agroforestry was first used by indigenous peoples. Nowadays, it is developed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the planet. It is characterized by a mixture of trees or shrubs in the fields of crop or livestock production, providing benefits from the ecological and economic interactions that develop in the process. Currently, the term agroforestry has excelled in technical and superior courses of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in various sectors of society, and especially in rural areas. The main purpose of this study was to compare an agroforestry system to a conventional agriculture in the semiarid of Ceará, to determine which agricultural model has more economic and environmental viability, performing a case study in Nova Olinda, in the state of Ceará. The differences between conventional and agroforestry farming systems were evaluated using data collected from questionnaires answered by two farmers who use these systems on their properties. With the farmer that uses agroforestry, a semi-structured interview was conducted. For the content of soil fertility in the study area, soil samples were collected. The environmental analysis was promoted by calculating environmental performance, based on the parameters presented in the Environmental Guide for Rural Producers. We used descriptive analysis, at which we grouped into tables the data we collected from family farmers, taking into account the variables of economic and environmental imprint. Data were collected between November of 2011 and June 2012. The experience of the farmer José Raimundo de Matos (Zé Artur) with agroforestry began in 1995, when he learned it from the Christian Association from Base (Associação Cristã de Base-ACB), the agricultural practice of planting without drilling and without burning. At first, the farmer did not believe it, however, when he adhered to the practice of not burning, he had very satisfactory result. The positive results provided by the agroforestry system used by Zé Artur showed that this agroecological practice surpasses the conventional agriculture by far. However, the farmer emphasizes that these findings are the result of an investment in labor-work superior to conventional agriculture, when compared to the SAF, it requires a greater amount of attention to the production by the farmer. Besides being an example of sustainable production, Zé Artur’s SAF has also been one of the tourist attractions of the city of Olinda. Very often, the property is visited by students from the region, tourists and researchers who want to see closely the success of his experience. The agroforestry is a practice that allows a better interaction with the adversities of climate which are very common in the semiarid regions. Agroforestry agriculture surpasses in economic feasibility, the conventional farmer, with an income twice as high financially speaking. In agroforestry system, the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil also positively outperform conventional agriculture. The Taboleiro farm where the agroforestry system is developed, has a good environmental performance, while at the Patos Farm, which uses conventional farming, this performance is low.
