Multi-objective optimization of soil water-nitrogen management practice and seeding rate for sustainable soybean production on the Loess Plateau of China

Improved soil and crop management practices are essential for enhancing soybean production, but a comprehensive evaluation of agronomic performance, economic benefit and environmental sustainability associated with various soil and crop management practices is still missing. Field experiments were performed on soybean using a split-split plot design on the Loess Plateau of China in 2019 and 2020, with soil water management practice as the main plot (NM: flat cultivation; RF: ridge-furrow cultivation with film mulch; RW: ridge-furrow cultivation with film mulch and supplemental irrigation), nitrogen rate as the sub-plot (N30: 30 kg N ha−1 and N60: 60 kg N ha−1) and seeding rate as the sub-sub plot (D16: 160,000 plants ha−1 and D32: 320,000 plants ha−1). A multi-level multi-objective fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model was established for analysis. The results indicated that the soil water-nitrogen management practice and seeding rate (p