Abstract: Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has offered a promising platform for rice direct seeding that can substantially reduce labor input in the crop establishment process. However, the insufficient payload capacity of UAV-based seeders is currently limiting its intensive and large-scale use for rice direct seeding. This study indicated a large variation in seed weight across varieties, ranging from 15.0 to 36.5 mg and 14.0 to 31.3 mg for inbred and hybrid varieties, respectively, with average seed weights of 25.3 mg for inbred and 24.7 mg for hybrid varieties. Seed weights of 160 out of 4 106 inbred varieties and 17 out of 311 hybrid varieties ranged from 15.0 to 20.0 mg. Reducing seed weight from 25.0 to 15.0 mg increased the seeding area per UAV flight by 67% regardless of inbred and hybrid varieties, although the absolute increase in seeding area for hybrid variety was greater than that for inbred variety because of the difference in seeding rate. The grain yield of inbred varieties was reduced when the seed weight was less than 24 mg. Moreover, 87% of inbred varieties with a seed weight ≤ 20 mg were distributed in South China where rice consumers prefer small rice grains. Therefore, the use of low-seed-weight inbred varieties for improving UAV seeding efficiency might be considered in South China. Unlike inbred rice, 64% of hybrid varieties had higher grain weights compared with their seed weights, and reducing seed weights did not necessarily cause yield loss. Therefore, the small-seed-and-large-grain strategy in hybrid rice could be used for improving UAV seeding efficiency without yield loss. This strategy can be considered for improving UAV seeding efficiency in rice production regions other than South China.