At which point of sale? If you mean in some chain grocery store then I would agree with you, but if you go to any local rice merchant they have tons of varieties.

Well what I mean is that a lot of people don't have a 'local rice merchant' or aren't going there - so it's not 'often' much of a choice, i.e. across all points of sale.

I'm not talking about just India (nor just rice) if that's the confusion - I don't know where I'd personally go for a choice of basmati cultivars, but there's probably things (potatoes?) I have more choice of in the UK than there generally is in India.

Ah thanks for clarifying

Most Americans do not have access to local rice merchants.

The special thing about this is that creating new rice cultivars are difficult. Indian farmers specifically discovered and developed techniques to prevent self-pollination and encourage cross-pollination. This allowed for an explosion of rice varietals.

In other words the special part here, along with the quantity, is that the process was deliberate and encouraged. There are like 110,000 identified cultivars of rice in India. There are special harvest festivals that specifically encourage the discovery of new rice varietals which are then shared in these festivals.

That's awesome. I'll definitely be looking out for something interesting sounding/local or just different to try or bring back next time.