Why is rice so famous?

Belive it or not, if we were to

measure the amount of rice
consumed each year and
compare it to the weight of all the
people globally rice would have a
fair amount of advantage: It
contributes over 20% of the
calories consumed by individuals
all around the world yearlong.
Countless countries' culturally
significant dishes' begin with rice.
The history of the infamous crop
goes back thousands of years to
when early farmes in Asia, Africa
and South America first started
planting them, all individually.
The first know planting of the tiny
seed was around 9,000 thousand
years ago, just one thousand
years after nomadic Asians
discovered it. Troughout all these
years they have come across
countless types of rice, but siz of
them are really worth mentioning,
because of how well known they
are: Glutinous
Rice, Jasmine Rice, Oryza
Sativa, Basmati Rice, Koshihikari
and Purple Rice.
This well-know seed as I've
mentioned, also originates from
another place, which is Africa, or
atleast a plant that is related to it.
Farmers had discovered and
started planting about 3,000
years ago. Today, rice plantation
is mostly limited to South Africa.
Last but surely not least in
planting comes South America,
where plantation started about
4,000 years ago, but was lost
when the Europeans arrived
along with Columbus. Asian rice
though, has spread all over Asia
and beyond and has become a
major part of numerous land's
diet. For example in India and
Nepal, some Hindu's celebrate
an infant's ability to eat solid
foods by having them taste rice
as their first solid food. This
ceremony is known as
Annaprashan. In Japan, for
instance rice is considered a
ration so momentous,
the Japanese word ご飯 (gohan)
means "cooked rice" and also
"meal". The global expansion of
rice cultivation was only possible
because the plant can grow in
many climates- wether that be
tropical or temperate. As a semi-
aquatic plant, rice feels the best,
if it can grow in heavily watered
soils. It is a rare one of it's kind-
most crops can not survive in
standing water, but rice has a
'feature' preventing it from dying.
They have air channels, tubes in
their stem that allow oxygen to
travel from above water to the
roots to fulfill their need for
oxygen. Traditionally it is planted
on flat land submerged under as
much as 10 centimeters of water
troughout growing season. This
isn't just a needfor the plant, but
also an additional protection from
birds, instead of a scarecrow.
Since everything has it's ups and
downs, so does rice planting.
First of all this technique
consumes over a third of
the world's irrigation water.
Second of all this process let's
out a large amount of
greenhouse gas, called Methane
into the air. This is due to water
being a friendly inverioment for
microorganisms to form, in this
case methanogens, which then
causes the gas to emerge. This
gas is 25 times more dangerous
to the Ozone, than Carbon
Dioxide. This results in rice
planting adding up to 12% of the
humaine causes of the
greenhouse house effect each
year.
To prevent this drastic
percentage farmers and
researchers have teamed up,
and came up with a draining and
flooding method called
alternative wetting & drying. This
let's the water level periodically
drop to keep methanogen growth
in check. This can cut water use
by thirty, Methane production by
thirty to seventy precent without
it damaging the quality of the
seeds.
https://youtu.be/YiiLg_KbZDM?
si=xy3kfxx-PGYaHtxK