Negative pressure irrigation as a potential technique for increasing vegetable yields and decreasing nitrous oxide emissions

•Negative pressure irrigation (NPI) reduced the seasonal changes in soil moisture and nitrogen.•NPI promoted vegetable yields while mitigating N2O emissions with low agricultural inputs.•We quantified the relative importance of the influence of soil properties on N2O emissions.•NPI is a ‘win-win’ system for improving the sustainability of irrigation in vegetable fields.