This study provides an overview of the aquaculture sector in some selected countries in Asia (India, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam) and highlights the importance of non-high value cultured species to rural development, food security and poverty alleviation, which is largely undescribed in available literature. Some value chains of such species were selected to be analysed in this study. The potential for development of these aquaculture subsectors were identified.