Enhancing food production in hot climates through radiative cooling mulch: A nexus approach
To eliminate damage to crops from high soil temperature and reduce soil evaporation, a radiative cooling mulch was applied to passively cool down the soil. By virtue of its high reflectivity in the solar spectra and high emissivity in the atmospheric window, the mulch can decrease the soil temperature at 2 cm depth by 12.5°C. In the field test during summer, the yield of Chinese Cabbage was improved by 127.4% after using this mulch. The applicability of this mulch on a global scale was discussed.