Scientists develop vitamin A rich bananas

It's hoped a newly developed vitamin A rich banana - funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - will save the lives of thousands of Ugandan children.

It's hoped a newly developed vitamin A rich banana will save the lives of Ugandan children. (AAP)

Australian researchers have developed the world's first golden-orange fleshed bananas rich in Vitamin A.

The development of the biofortified fruit is part of a "significant humanitarian project" aimed at improving the nutritional content of the banana in Uganda, where the fruit is a major food staple, says Queensland University of Technology's Professor James Dale.

The consequences of vitamin A deficiency are severe in Uganda, with an estimated 650,000-700,000 children to die as a result each year and a further several hundred thousand going blind.