Dryland agriculture on the Loess Plateau has long faced the challenges of water scarcity and soil degradation, which severely threaten soil ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) and crop yields. Biennial subsoiling tillage (ST) and ridge-furrow sowing (RS) can ensure sustainable agriculture production by regulating soil quality. However, their integrated effects of ST and RS on soil quality index (SQI), EMF, and crop yield remain poorly understood. A three-year field experiment was performed with two tillage methods, conventional tillage (CT) and ST, and two sowing patterns, flat sowing (FS) and RS, yielding four treatments: CT+FS, CT+RS, ST+FS and ST+RS. We examined the effects of tillage and sowing on crop yield, SQI, enzymatic stoichiometry, and EMF, as well as their interrelationships in topsoil and subsoil. Layers. The results showed that the combined ST+RS treatment significantly enhanced SQI by 13.8-40.6 % (topsoil) and 17.0-49.7 % (subsoil) compared to other treatments. Moreover, ST+RS enhanced the carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) enzyme activities. Furthermore, the integrated ST+RS management significantly alleviated microbial C and P limitations, and enhanced EMF by 76.8-203.0 % (topsoil) and 48.8-222.8 % (subsoil), while also enhancing crop yield by 9.5-24.5 % compared to other strategies (P < 0.05). Strong positive correlations were observed between SQI, EMF, and crop yield. Random forest analysis identified that ammonium nitrogen (NH+4 ) content and fungal biomass as key predictors of EMF in both topsoil and subsoil, respectively. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) further revealed that tillage and sowing practices had a direct negative effect on EMF in the topsoil but a positive effect in the subsoil, indicating distinct ecological functional responses and restructuring processes across soil layers. Overall, the study suggests that the integrated ST+RS planting system synergistically improves soil quality, EMF, and crop yield, offering an effective strategy for enhancing the resilience of the soil ecosystem to climate change and improving crop production in dryland farming systems.