AbstractField experiments were conducted for 3 years to investigate an appropriate irrigation management strategy that would lead to increased cabbage productivity along with saving in irrigation water. Cabbage was grown with microsprinkler and drip irrigation methods with four irrigation levels based on crop evapotranspiration (ETc) as 0.8 ETc, 0.9 ETc, 1 ETc, and 1.1 ETc. It was found that cabbage crop performed better with the microsprinkler system than the drip system. All the growth‐ and yield‐contributing characters in the microsprinkler irrigation method were significantly superior over drip irrigation. The maximum yield of cabbage was obtained by the microsprinkler method (37 t ha−1) with irrigation scheduling at 1 ETc followed by 0.9 ETc (35.5 t ha−1). However, highest water use efficiency (114 kg ha−1 mm−1) was obtained in drip irrigation with 0.9 ETc irrigation level, and the highest net income per mm of water (Rs 622) was obtained in drip irrigation with 1 ETc irrigation level. Microsprinkling gave 7.30% more yield of cabbage than the drip method, whereas the drip method saved 32% more water than the microsprinkler method. It is therefore recommended to adopt the microsprinkler irrigation method to obtain a potential yield of cabbage. However, when water is a limiting factor, it is recommended to grow cabbage with the drip irrigation method.